One statement and it all falls apart.
Bitcoin continued to plunge below the symbolic $ 40,000 mark on Wednesday, a first in more than three months, after a wake-up call in China against cryptocurrencies.
Around 3:20 p.m. in Paris, the price of the main cryptocurrency lost 23% to $ 33,710, just after collapsing to $ 30,016.83.
Since the start of last week, when it was still worth over $ 55,000, its price has dropped 30%.
Just over a month ago, bitcoin reached an all-time high of $ 64,870 on April 14.
It must be said that the attack was severe.
Cryptocurrencies "are not real currencies," said several benchmark Chinese banking federations on Wednesday, warning against "speculation" in a country which is also preparing its own digital currency.
China was once one of the strongholds of bitcoin, the most widespread of virtual currencies.
Beijing however took a radical turn in 2019 by making cryptocurrency payments illegal in the country, accused of being an instrument in the service of “criminal activities”.
"Endangering the security of personal property"
The Asian country was worried about the speculative risks that cryptocurrencies posed to its financial system as well as to social stability.
On the other hand, bitcoin mining activities and the holding of virtual currency on an individual basis are tolerated.
At a time when interest in virtual currencies abroad is growing, three banking federations on Tuesday called on financial institutions "not to accept [...] or use cryptocurrencies" as a means of payment.
"Recently, the prices of virtual currencies have soared and then collapsed" abroad, while speculative activities "have jumped", they note in a joint statement.
This "seriously undermines the security of people's property and disrupts the world economic order," blasted the National Internet Finance Federation, the China Banking Federation and the Payment and Compensation Federation.
Tesla's flip-flop
Interest in cryptocurrencies around the world has indeed jumped since the end of 2020. Driven by the interest of increasingly serious investors, from institutional banks on Wall Street to certain giants of Silicon Valley, the cryptocurrency market swelled to more than $ 2.5 trillion at its peak in mid-May, according to the Coinmarketcap site, which lists nearly 10,000 cryptocurrencies.
But since then, the market has melted by nearly $ 700 billion, and suffers in particular from the about-face of Elon Musk: the boss of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and founder of Paypal, who vehemently defended bitcoin on the networks. social, seems to have changed his mind.
Read alsoBitcoin and Tesla: five minutes to understand Elon Musk's turnaround
After announcing at the beginning of the year that it had invested part of Tesla's cash in bitcoin, the very media multibillionaire decided in mid-May to refuse payments in bitcoin for his electric vehicles, citing in particular the environmental risk caused by the mining bitcoin. "I don't know if Elon has any information we don't have, but the risk of tightening regulation has increased since the Colonial Pipeline pipeline company paid a huge ransom in cryptocurrency," he said. 'reported several American media, commented Jeffrey Halley, analyst at Oanda.
The Chinese regulator is not alone in worrying about the soaring cryptocurrency market: its counterparts in Europe or the United States have called on investors to be cautious, without however prohibiting transactions. China is also accelerating preparations to launch its own virtual currency, which will be issued and supervised by the central bank. Chinese digital currency, the future means of electronic payment on smartphones to replace coins and banknotes, could make its debut in 2022 during the Beijing Winter Olympics.