The overall cryptocurrency market took a hit on Monday morning, with the price of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, falling below $44,000. It’s currently trading at around $44,068, down about 7.45% in the last 24 hours.
Other top cryptocurrencies are also in the red.
Ether, the second-largest, is currently trading at about $3,106, down 7.76% in the last 24 hours. As a whole, the global cryptocurrency market cap is down more than 8% in the last day.
This comes as investors fear the fallout from the near collapse of indebted Evergrande, a Chinese property developer so massive it could effect the global economy, which sparked a sell-off of volatile investments like crypto, and also amid concerns about potential cryptocurrency regulation in the U.S.
In addition, here are four things that happened in the space this week.
1. House Democrats propose plan to close crypto tax loophole
On Sept. 13, the House Ways and Means Committee proposed legislation that would close a tax loophole for cryptocurrency investors by imposing “wash sale” rules on commodities, currencies and digital assets, according to a released outline.
Currently, investors can sell cryptocurrency for a loss and claim a tax benefit. Then, investors can immediately buy back the asset if it rebounds. So-called “wash sale” rules would prevent investors from buying the same asset back right away.
Subjecting cryptocurrency and other assets to this proposed change would raise $16.8 billion over a decade, according to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation.
2. Senators demand cryptocurrency regulation guidance from SEC
On Tuesday, Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Senate Banking Committee that the SEC is working overtime to create a set of rules for cryptocurrency markets to protect investors.
“Currently, we just don’t have enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending,” Gensler said in prepared remarks. “Frankly, at this time, it’s more like the Wild West or the old world of ‘buyer beware’ that existed before the securities laws were enacted.”
Some lawmakers also pressed Gensler about whether certain crypto assets, like stablecoins, meet the definition of a security, which has been an ongoing subject of concern and confusion for regulators and the crypto community.
3. Ray Dalio says if bitcoin is really successful, regulators will ‘kill it’
On Wednesday, Ray Dalio told CNBC that he believes that regulators would ultimately take control of bitcoin if the cryptocurrency is successful.
“I think at the end of the day if it’s really successful, they will kill it and they will try to kill it. And I think they will kill it because they have ways of killing it,” Dalio told Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” at the SALT conference.
“You have El Salvador taking it on and you have India and China getting rid of it. And you have the United States talking about how to regulate it and it could still be controlled,” he said.
Still, Dalio disclosed that he has “a certain amount of money in bitcoin,” but noted that the allocation is smaller than his gold exposure.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment to have brought it from where that programming occurred to where it is through the test of time,” he said.
4. OpenSea confirms insider trading on the NFT platform
OpenSea, the largest NFT, or nonfungible token, platform, confirmed that one of its employees was taking part in an insider trading scheme.
“Yesterday we learned that one of our employees purchased items that they knew were set to display on our front page before they appeared there publicly,” the company wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
In OpenSea’s written statement, it called the incident “incredibly disappointing.”
OpenSea would not confirm the name of the employee to CNBC.
As CNBC reported, since NFTs exist in a legal gray zone, this incident doesn’t appear to be illegal.
