Bitcoin hovers near $8,000

Cryptocurrency has lost more than half of its value as investors weigh the future of the nascent industry

Bitcoin swung between gains and losses around the $8,000 mark (Dh29,384) as investors digested the latest developments in a widening social-media crackdown on digital tokens.

The largest cryptocurrency was steady at $7,844.25 as of 9:42am in London, according to consolidated Bloomberg pricing. Twitter Inc. confirmed on Monday it’s banning advertisements for initial coin offerings and token sales on its platform, joining Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google on the list of tech giants keeping cryptos at bay. Rival coins Ripple, Ether and Litecoin fell.

Since reaching a peak of almost $20,000 in mid-December at the height of the cryptocurrency frenzy, Bitcoin has lost more than half of its value as investors weigh the future of the nascent industry.

Peak time

Since reaching a peak of almost $20,000 in mid-December at the height of the cryptocurrency frenzy, Bitcoin has lost more than half of its value as investors weigh the future of the nascent industry amid intensifying scrutiny. Facebook banned cryptocurrency ads in January and Google said it would outlaw such ads starting in June.

Bitcoin earlier jumped as high as $8,265.87 following a decline on Monday of 8.4 per cent. The digital token has now dropped by about a quarter in March alone.

Also Monday, Cboe Global Markets Inc., the first US exchange to list Bitcoin futures, prodded US regulators to consider approving crypto exchange-traded funds in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Futures trading

While Bitcoin futures trading volumes can’t yet support ETFs, Cboe said it is encouraged by their growth trajectory and that there are “reliable and robust” ways to value Bitcoin and potentially other digital assets.