Also, South Korea blames the North for crypto hacking and China continues its regulatory crackdown

The price of Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, continues to plunge

The crypto sell-off not only continued last night, it appeared to accelerate as Bitcoin dropped well below US$7,000 to US$6,148 as of publishing. Furthermore, it marked a US$2,000 24-hour drop and is part of a US$5,000 “correction” over the last seven days.

Unfortunately, investors can’t park their money in the other major cryptocurrencies as they have followed Bitcoin’s lead and are also tumbling. Ethereum is priced at US$631 after seeing a one-month high of over US$1,300. Bitcoin Cash has halved over the last month, dropping from about US$1,600 to US$811 and Ripple (which made news for crossing the US$1 mark) is now at US$0.62.

Yesterday, China cracked down hard on cryptocurrency trading, which may be contributing to the sell-off.

Singapore says its not going to ban crypto trading anytime soon

A day after China rocked the cryptocurrency world by announcing all trading activity is illegal, Singapore authorities said they have not found a strong case for banning the transactions.

According to Channel News Asia, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the government is studying and keeping tabs on potential risks with crypto-trading, but that they will not be banning the currency for now.

Reading between the tea leaves, the quote reads as an official who is willing to accept certain risks because the long-term potential of cryptocurrencies is not worth killing with overregulation.

One of the biggest hackers in the crypto-universe? North Korea

South Korean officials said yesterday they think North Korea was behind the theft of tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies last year, according to Kyodo News. South Korean authorities are also investigating if North Korea is behind the US$534 million hack into Coincheck at the end of January.

An interesting tidbit from the report is that investigators think a main trick used by hackers was simple phishing attacks.

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Many people believe North Korea is targeting cryptocurrency hacking as a means to “fundraise” whilst avoiding American sanctions.

After trading crackdown, expect China to issue fresh rules about ICOs

One day after China banned all cryptocurrency trading, the country is said to be preparing new regulations surrounding initial coin offerings (ICOs), according to Reuters.

The package will work in tandem with other regulators and is expected to include foreign exchanges. This would be important for Chinese regulators if they want to stop capital flight in the crypto space.

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