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Bitcoin sunk as much as 19 per cent on Thursday, putting the digital currency on pace for its worst week since January 2015.
After flirting with $3,000 on Monday, the cryptocurrency retreated to as low as $2,076.16 in intraday trading.
The decline coincides with a slide in technology stocks that began after a report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc warned that low volatility in the biggest tech stocks may be blinding investors to risks like cyclicality and regulation.
A US Senate bill that targets money laundering and terrorist financing has also drawn criticism this week from some Bitcoin enthusiasts, who say the proposed legislation is draconian. The bill, which was introduced in May, includes a section that singles out digital currencies and prepaid access devices.
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Many of Bitcoin’s cousins, like ripple, NEM and monero, have also struggled in the past week. The weakness in Bitcoin’s price also began after digital currency exchange Coinbase experienced an outage Monday due to high trading volume.
- Bloomberg
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