Bitcoin price news LIVE – Bank aims to bar cryptocurrency purchases as ‘digital gold’ plummets 37 per cent in May

BANK AIMS TO BAR CRYPTOCURRENCY PURCHASES

The Times reports one bank plans to use technology to ban its several million customers from buying any digital currencies.

Cryptocurrency scams often advertised on social media sites have become so common that experts believe many genuine platforms have been infiltrated by scammers.

Ashley Hart, head of fraud at TSB, said. “Platforms and exchanges are rife with fraudsters, and many do not have proper controls to prevent victims losing large sums of money.

 “Crypto is a hotbed for fraud, and urgently needs greater regulation and consumer protection. Anyone approached to invest in crypto should be extremely wary.”

CRYPTOS MOSTLY LOWER

EToro reported on Friday that the crypto market “maintained its negative momentum over the past 24 hours, as the majority of the top 10 cryptos were in the red.

“Bitcoin declined around three per cent, trading below $37,000 at the time of writing.

“Some of the largest losses were registered by Cardano and XRP, each declining around seven per cent.”

BITCOIN DOWN 37% IN MAY

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has lost 37% in May, which if sustained would be its worst monthly performance since September 2011.

Its drop was triggered by China’s efforts to crack down on mining and trading of cryptocurrencies, and Tesla’s move to halt payments over worries about energy use.

Energy regulators in China’s Sichuan will soon meet local power companies to gather information on cryptocurrency mining, an official said on Thursday, potentially leading to a clampdown in the country’s second-biggest bitcoin production hub.

BITCOIN BEST AS ‘DIGITAL GOLD’

Cryptocurrency experts reckon that Bitcoin is best used as ‘digital gold’, according to The Times.

In other words, a “store of wealth and a safe haven in times of turmoil, in the same way that physical gold has been used for centuries,” the paper adds.

The Times reports, though, that “detractors say that Bitcoin cannot function as such because it is too volatile.

“Before the recent crash, Bitcoin’s volatility had been in steady decline, leading to hopes that it was maturing as an asset and that its new mandate could soon be fulfilled.”

However, for some, those hopes were recently ‘dashed’ as the price dramatically dipped.

CRYPTO RAID… MORE

Suspicions over the large alleged Bitcoin “mine” operation had been raised over the huge volume of power being used, leading cops to initially think it was being used for drug production.

Police heard lots of people were visiting the unit throughout the day, with lots of wiring and ventilation ducts visible while locals say three men were behind the operation.

Cops forced their way into the premises in Great Bridge Industrial Estate in Sandwell on May 18, after a drone picked up a heat source – but didn’t find what they were expecting.

Inside, police discovered 100 powerful computers hooked up to a complex system.

West Midlands Police say the computers were illegally using thousands of pounds of electricity in order to mine Bitcoin on a huge scale.

CRYPTO RAID

Cops were stunned to find a Bitcoin “mine” operation allegedly stealing thousands of pounds of electricity during a suspected warehouse drug raid.

Officers in the West Midlands thought they were about to bust a cannabis farm – but were allegedly met with the advanced tech scam instead.

Police were tipped that many people were visiting the unit throughout the day, with lots of wiring and ventilation ducts visible while locals claimed that three men were behind the operation.

Cryptocurrencies have to be “mined” in order to be created, which involves solving increasingly complex mathematical puzzles – requiring more and more powerful computers and significantly more energy.

Most computers used for the process cost more to run than the value of the currency they create – making stolen electricity a lucrative business when a single Bitcoin is currently worth around £26,000.

CHINA TO LOOK MORE INTO BITCOIN MINING… MORE

Cryptomining is a big business in China, accounting for over half of global cryptocurrency supply.

But the power-hungry business could hinder China in meeting carbon-neutrality goals, according to some analysts.

The annual energy consumption of China’s bitcoin industry is expected to peak in 2024 at about 297 terawatt-hours.

This exceeded the total power consumption level of Italy and Saudi Arabia in 2016, according to a study recently published in scientific journal Nature Communications.

Sichuan, rich in hydropower resources, is China’s second-biggest bitcoin mining province after Xinjiang, contributing to nearly 10% of China’s hashrate, or computing power, in April, according to data compiled by the University of Cambridge.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF INVESTING IN BITCOIN?

Investing and making a purchase in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is risky .

Their value is highly volatile and City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority has warned investors should be prepared to lose all their money.

Investing in cryptocurrencies is not a guaranteed way to make money.

You should also think carefully about making purchases with a cryptocurrency.

For example, Bitcoin has had wild price fluctuations in recent months and the price can change on an almost hourly basis.

BITCOIN SLUMPS 8% TO ITS LOWEST LEVEL OF THE WEEK

Bitcoin slumped on Friday to its lowest this week, taking losses sparked by a growing crackdown in China and environmental concerns to almost 40% so far this month.

The biggest cryptocurrency extended earlier losses, falling as much as 8.2% to $35,339 as it stayed pinned in this week’s relatively tight trading range. It was last down 6.2%.

BITCOIN ‘ERRATIC PRICE’ WARNING

Bitcoin’s place in any investment portfolio “remains highly contested… because of its erratic price movements”, warns Alain Bokobza, an analyst at Societe Generale.

The Times explains that Bitcoin was released in 2009 with the goal of becoming a decentralised digital currency, out-of-reach of government institutions.

In May 2021 Beijing banned China-based finance firms from providing services related to crypto.

Bitcoin “went on a wild ride the next day, falling by as much 31 per cent,” the Times adds.

NATWEST’S TIPS TO AVOID CRYPTO SCAM

Here are NatWest’s tips to avoid a cryptocurrency scam:

• If you have been contacted by a “trader” promising large profits and offering to help you invest in cryptocurrency, this is a likely to be a scam.
• Always have control of your cryptocurrency wallet.
• If you did not set the wallet up yourself or a cryptocurrency trader persuaded you to download remote access software onto your computer, this could be a sign of a scam. You should stop making payments immediately.
• Follow FCA advice and check the cryptocurrency firm you are dealing with has been approved by them.

HOW DOES CRYPTO-MINING WORK?

Mining cryptocurrencies is a complex and energy-intensive process, which requires a lot of computer power.

Bitcoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, and the process for mining it is similar for other coins, including Dogecoin.

Mining Bitcoin requires a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution.

For each problem solved, one block of Bitcoin is processed. In addition, the miner is rewarded with new Bitcoin.

To compensate for the growing power of computer chips, the difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of new Bitcoins are produced each day.

IRAN TEMPORARILY BANS CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING AFTER BLACKOUTS

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday announced a four-month ban on all cryptocurrency mining, a day after his energy minister apologised for unplanned power cuts in major cities.

Iranian officials have regularly blamed unlicensed cryptocurrency miners for using vast amounts of electricity.

“Cryptocurrency activities and mining cryptocurrencies must be stopped” until September 22, Rouhani said in televised remarks.

BITCOIN NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MONEY

Bitcoin’s drop was triggered by China’s efforts to crack down on mining and trading of cryptocurrencies and weighed by Tesla suspending its willingness to accept it as payment due to environmental concerns about energy use..

The U.S. Treasury Department has also called for requiring large cryptocurrency transfers to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve flagged the risks cryptocurrencies posed to financial stability.

“It is not a substitute for money,” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank, told the Global Markets Forum chatroom on Refinitiv Eikon.

“At best (it) is an alternative asset, albeit one without intrinsic value,” he said, adding that blockchain technology and its potential “must not be conflated with crypto-currencies”.

HOW DOES BITCOIN WORK?

To process Bitcoin transactions, a procedure called “mining” must take place, which involves a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution.

For each problem solved, one block of Bitcoin is processed. In addition, the miner is rewarded with new Bitcoin.

To compensate for the growing power of computer chips, the difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of new Bitcoins are produced each day.

There are currently about 21million Bitcoin tokens in existence.

To receive a Bitcoin, a user must have a Bitcoin address – a string of 27-34 letters and numbers – which acts as a kind of virtual postbox.

WHAT COULD 10,000 BITCOINS HAVE BOUGHT YOU IN APRIL? 26.3MILLION PIZZAS

At the height of the cryptocurrency boom in April 2021, 10,000 Bitcoin could have bought 26.3million Papa John’s cheese and tomato pizzas, reports The Times.

Now, though, it adds, the Bitcoin bulls have been well and truly ‘battered’ as the ‘digital gold’ has lost some of its lustre and, May 21, the same number would have bought “a mere 16.8million pizzas”.

HOW HAS THE VALUE OF BITCOIN CHANGED?

• 2020: Started at $5,000 before ending the year around $28,000
• 2021 January: Bitcoin around $36,000
• February: Bitcoin around $50,000
• March: Bitcoin around $60,000
• April: Bitcoin soaring above $62,000
• May: Bitcoin tumbles to $39,790

LATEST ON MEME STOCKS

Shares of AMC Entertainment hit record highs before paring gains on Friday, putting the movie theatre chain on track for a 156% weekly gain.

AMC’s shares were last up 16.4% at $30.87 after earlier hitting a high of $36.72, and on track for their biggest weekly gains since late January.

Shares in GameStop were down 2.4% on Friday. Shares of the videogame retailer, which has been at the heart of the so-called “stonks” retail trading mania this year, were still set for its best weekly gain since mid-March, up about 40% so far.

Retail traders’ shift into so-called meme stocks – shares favoured by the denizens of online communities – comes on the back of a selloff in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies whose prices have slumped in recent weeks.

AMC saw some $127 mln in inflows from retail investors on Thursday, according to Vanda Research. AMC rose 35.5% in that session adding more than $3.3 billion to its market value, according to data from Refinitiv.

ETHER 11% DIP

Bitcoin eked out a gain of around 3% so this week. Crypto markets trade 24/7, with volatility common at weekends.

Smaller coins, which typically rise and fall in tandem with bitcoin, also slumped. Second largest digital token ether fell as much as 11% to a four-day low.

I LOST BITCOIN WORTH £300MILLION WHEN MY MUM THREW OUT BROKEN LAPTOP, CLAIMS ‘TRADER’

A Bitcoin trader claims he lost crypto now worth £300million when his mum threw out his broken laptop.

The anonymous poster on the /r/bitcoin subreddit declared the Bitcoin “ruined his life” as the revelation of his lost fortune hit home.

The Sun Online has been looking at some cautionary tales from the world of crypto – and one such story was told by this Redditor.

He claimed he purchased 10,000 Bitcoin in early 2010 as a punt, spending around £50 ($80) after being convinced by his college roommates, storing the keys on his laptop after transferring them from a USB.

As he graduated and started to get on with his life – he eventually forgot about the coins.

Read more here.

WHY IS ETHEREUM GOING DOWN?

Ethereum has rocketed in value over the course of this year.

It hit an all time high on May 12 after a wave of interest across crypto which pushed up many digital coin prices this year.

The surge to a record high of $4,362.95 meant ethereum rocketed by more than 2,000% since last year.

The price of Ethereum is currently $2,573.92 at the time of writing on Friday morning, according to coinmarketcap.

Cryptocurrencies across the board crashed last week after a crackdown by China was announced and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk raised concerns over the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

BITCOIN SLUMPS FURTHER

Bitcoin slumped on Friday to its lowest this week, taking losses sparked by a growing crackdown in China and environmental concerns to almost 40% so far this month.

The biggest cryptocurrency extended earlier losses, falling as much as 8.2% to $35,339 as it stayed pinned in this week’s relatively tight trading range. It was last down 6.2%.

“Bitcoin is currently in a bit of ‘slumber mode’ trading in the range of $34,000 and $40,000,” said Ulrik Lykke, executive director at crypto hedge fund ARK36.

“Many traders are acknowledging that price seems to be range-bound for the moment, why they may be hesitant to take a position with high conviction.”

BITCOIN & ETHER DOWN ON FRIDAY

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was down about 6% at $36,174 in the morning in New York, while ether was down 8% at around $2,510.

FIVE RISKS OF CRYPTO INVESTMENTS

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned people about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies:

Consumer protection: Some investments advertising high returns based on cryptoassets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering requirements.

Price volatility: Significant price volatility in cryptoassets, combined with the inherent difficulties of valuing cryptoassets reliably, places consumers at a high risk of losses.

Product complexity: The complexity of some products and services.

Charges and fees: Consumers should consider the impact of fees and charges on their investment which may be more than those for regulated investment products.

Marketing materials: Firms may overstate the returns of products or understate the risks involved.

BITCOIN IS A ‘FANTASY’

Bitcoin investment is a ‘fantasy that will cost us dear’, according to Iain Martin in The Times.

He writes: “One Bitcoin equalled about £7,000 12 months ago. A few weeks ago is was worth more than £40,000.

“Annoying to have missed out, isn’t it? Funnily enough, there is a catch to this get-rich-scheme. If you had decided to hold on to your Bitcoin and needed to sell it, you would discover that it had fallen rather steeply in value since the latest peak.

“These fluctuations in the world of cryptocurrencies so concern those running central banks that officials have issued warnings about the growing risks to small investors, who have been attracted by advertising campaigns promising sudden riches with added technology.”