The price of Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) dropped below $3,000 on Friday as the sell-off continues, Bitcoin.com reports.
The currency traded as low as $2,972, marking a 36% fall from Bitcoin’s close on September 7, and a collapse of 40% from the highs struck earlier this month.
The total market capitalization of digital assets reached as little as $112 billion on Thursday, which represented a 37.7% drop from its all-time high of $179.8 billion. According to CoinMarketCap, it resulted in losing close to 40% of its market value.
Earlier today it was announced that the Chinese Bitcoin trading platform ViaBTC will become the second exchange after BTCChina to shut down operations amid an ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency industry.
Shenzhen-based Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange ViaBTC has confirmed the closure of exchange operations in Mainland China on September 30.
Chinese Bitcoin exchange BTCChina said on Thursday that it would stop all trading from September 30, setting off a further slide in the value of the cryptocurrency that left it over 30% away from the record highs it hit earlier in the month.
On Tuesday chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) Jamie Dimon said that Bitcoin was 'a fraud' and it would blow up. Speaking at a bank investor conference in New York, Dimon added: “The currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart.”
Earlier this month China’s central bank the People’s Bank of China proclaimed initial coin offerings (ICOs) illegal and demanded all related fundraising activity to be halted immediately.