The bitcoin in free fall because of Facebook

The price of the bitcoin closed this Thursday below the USD 10,000 in a new negative day for the cryptocurrency, which is worth less than half of what it was worth in mid-December when the excitement lifted the price close to USD 20,000 per coin.

Since then, bitcoin has seen a sharp decline and, although it had already drilled the USD 10 thousand mark at other times in January, it opened February below USD 9,200, at a loss of almost 10% in one day.

After a public release from Facebook in which it announces it will prohibit cryptocurrency ads in the social network, the value suffered a new setback that affected bitcoin investors and other digital currencies' holders. As the company explained, there were several similar ventures that used advertising on the platform to increase the expectation for its ICOs, without offering the necessary support.

The losses during 2018 were accentuated by government measures that slowed the advance of its use, such as those employed in South Korea and China. On Thursday, the Government of India announced that it will take "all measures" to end the use of cryptocurrencies as a method of payment in the country and warned that it does not consider them legal currencies.

On the opposite way, countries like Japan already recognize them as a means of payment, and the currency was legitimized last December when it was accepted for the first time in two futures markets in the US, which increased its fury at the end of 2017.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency not regulated by any State or central bank, since it was worth only a few cents when it was created in February 2009 by several computer scientists who hid under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.

What the future holds for bitcoin and crypto? Let me know in the comments below: