Bitcoin Price Falls Below $4,000 Again: Is Another Big Drop in Store?

This year the Boxing Day sales seem to have started a day early for anyone hoping to get exposure to the number one digital asset at a discounted rate. The Bitcoin price and those of other cryptos have been dropping hard since the clock struck midnight last night and this trend has continued since.

At exactly the moment that Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day (in the UK at least), the Bitcoin price was sitting comfortably at around $4,080. Its total market capitalisation has since shed close to $5 billion and the cost of a single Bitcoin is $3,816 at the time of writing.

Xmas Bitcoin Price Drop: Is a Bakkt Delay Behind it?

The precise cause of the market selloff this morning is unknown. However, some are speculating that it may be related to the rumour that the launch of the Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt platform is getting postponed for a second time:

what i see for today and tomorrow for $btc. only thing that will hurt this is the panic sellers cause of #bakkt being extended pic.twitter.com/ol8IOiPA7D

— W҈o҈l҈f҈O҈f҈C҈r҈y҈p҈t҈o҈ (@MaxieX9) December 25, 2018

Although several cryptocurrency news publications have already reported on the story, there has been no official word yet from the Bakkt itself that suggests the launch will indeed be delayed. Given that it is Christmas day, however, this is to be expected.

Reports suggest that the Bakkt platform does not have the necessary approval from the US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission yet. Of course, this does not mean that Bakkt will not eventually get a green light from the regulator but it seems unlikely that it will come in time for the late January launch day, that has already been rescheduled once before, in November this year.

Bitcoin Price Continues to Lead the Rest of the Cryptocurrency Market

It is not just the Bitcoin price that is tanking this Christmas Day. As seems to be the norm, the rest of the cryptocurrency market is taking a nose dive. The likes of Ether, XRP, Stellar, EOS, and Litecoin have all suffered double-digit percentage declines.

Leading the top ten in terms of losses, however, is Bitcoin Cash (formerly known as Bitcoin Cash ABC). The cryptocurrency which forked off from the original Bitcoin chain in August 2017 and, more recently, split into Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Vision has shed almost 20% of its price over the last 24-hours.

A likely cause for the current BCH selling pressure is that Bitmain, one of the largest supporters of Bitcoin Cash, us rumoured to be in the process of letting go of more than 50% of its workforce.

Blockstream’s Samson Mow Tweeted:

“Bitmain has quietly laid off their entire Copernicus team. Only 1-week notice. Some had just joined the company. Layoffs just in time for Christmas.”

Some believe the actual number to be far higher too:

Our insider says more like 75% of all people will be let go https://t.co/F5lVB04waC

— BTCKING555 (@btcking555) December 25, 2018

The rumours have emerged less than one month after the mining hardware giant announced that were closing their Israeli dev centre, which, of course, involved a large number of layoffs.

NewsBTC will bring you more on this story, as well as the Bakkt delay rumours as they develop.

Featured Image from Shutterstock.

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