Investing.com – Bitcoin remained under pressure Thursday as bearish sentiment continued to weigh on the popular digital currency following renewed regulatory pressure.
Bitcoin fell 1.98% to $6,736.5 on the Bitfinex exchange, edging closer to its low of $6,432.40 seen Sunday.
The Reserve Bank of India said regulated entities have three months to unwind their positions with individuals or business dealing in cryptocurrencies.
While cryptocurrency trading volumes in India pales to that of Japan and South Korea this latest regulatory crackdown in the industry added to the recent wave of measures to curb crypto-related activity, denting investor demand for cryptocurrencies.
Apple, Facebook and Twitter recently moved to ban cryptocurrency related ads, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said earlier this year that it would take a closer look at crypto platforms providing exchange-like services that were not registered with the regulator, while some banks also banned customers from using credit cards to fund crypto purchases.
Some market participants also blamed the ongoing slump in bitcoin on unexpected tax liabilities as many traders were said to have sold bitcoin in order to pay taxes on large gains realised last year, when bitcoin rose to a peak of nearly $20,000 on the Bitfinex exchange.
A lack of demand for cryptocurrencies has been characterised by a plunge in the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation as traders remained on the sidelines amid expectations that a further selloff beckons for cryptocurrencies.
The total market cap of cryptocurrencies fell to $255 billion – at the time of writing – from $260 billion on Wednesday.
Ripple XRP fell 1.77% to $0.48299 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum fell 1.69% to $377.50