Bitcoin loses market interest but wins that of regulators

Between the dwindling interest of individuals and increasingly stringent regulators, the bitcoin market is going through a turbulent period, even if some players in the sector continue to believe in the future of the first cryptocurrency.

After a buying fever at the end of 2017 and a spectacular fall at the beginning of the year, the price of the bitcoin, which continues at low hours, fell back in recent weeks.

"The fall in prices is a healthy correction, after the madness of late 2017," says Kyle Samani, creator last October of a fund dedicated to cryptocurrencies, Multicoin Capital, which manages US $ 50 million for private investors.

Although it affirms that the first cryptocurrency will take advantage of the global interest in the sector, its fund does not bet on an increase in the price of bitcoin, like other investors, which privilege other cryptocurrencies with more impressive results or with more innovative technologies.

"The spectacular daily results of 2017 have been far away" highlights Jordan Hiscott, head of investment of the online market platform Ayondo Markets.

With the rest of the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin has retreated and represents less than 40% of the volume of transactions, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com site, against 80% a few months ago.

The bubble bursts

Proof of its growing weakness is that the number of weekly searches in Google with the word bitcoin has been divided by five, since the peak of interest that aroused in the week of December 17 to 23.

The bitcoin was quoted at the end of March at around US $ 8,000, according to Bloomberg, against US $ 19,511 at the end of December.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note in early March that the ups and downs of bitcoin faithfully reproduce the cycle of the financial bubble of technological values ​​of the year 2000, "except that it occurs 15 times faster," they say.

However, since its launch in 2009, the cryptocurrency has already lost about 90% of its value twice in 2011 and 2015, before recovering spectacularly.

"I would not be surprised if prices fall to US $ 5,000 or go up to 10,000," says Craig Erlam, an analyst at Oanda, as the market is very volatile. However, in the short term it rules out returning to the December contribution levels.

In a market that remains unstable, the observers can not explain the fall of bitcoin, although some link it to the harshest regulations, and the warnings of the financial "gendarmes" of Japan or the United States about the exchange platforms.

In addition, social networks Facebook and Twitter, as well as the Google search engine, announced that they banned advertising for ICO, those collections of funds made in cryptocurrency.

"In the short term it is negative for the market," explains David Drake, who manages the investment fund LDJ Capital, which has a portfolio in cryptocurrencies.

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