Cryptocurrency Market Slumps As Ether Declines

The cryptocurrency market is continuing its descent with the market hitting a new ten-month low after the price of Ether declined and regulators in the U.S. halted trading in two securities that are tied to cryptocurrency.

According to a report in Bloomberg Ether, which is the second biggest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin, fell 8.9 percent at 5:00 p.m. New York Time Friday (Sept. 7) while Bitcoin dropped 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of digital assets that are tracked by CoinMarketCap.com declined to $197 billion from $640 billion at its peak in January. Bloomberg noted that digital tokens have declined in five of the last six weeks amid concerns that it will take longer than hoped for cryptocurrencies to go mainstream. Over the weekend the Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t help that plight by temporarily suspending trading in two exchange-traded notes that were linked to cryptocurrencies. At the same time Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum told Bloomberg the days of huge growth in the blockchain market are over.

In trading Monday (September 10) Bloomberg reported the digital tokens are still under pressure, even though Citigroup has reportedly come up with a way to invest in crypto. The bank, reported Bloomberg, will act as an agent issuing digital asset receipts or DARS that allow for trading by proxy without having to own the coins, a person with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg.  According to the report, the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index of major virtual currencies declined 4.1 percent to 392.68 at 8:28 a.m. in London, while Ether declined to $199.05 and bitcoin fell to $6.313.51. Ether has seen a bigger drop than bitcoin in the past few months amid concerns that blockchain startups are cashing out of the digital tokens. Lots of startups raised Ether via initial coin offerings and are now cashing in to cover expenses and pay the salaries of the employees of these startups.