The bitcoin price has continued to trade near $11,500 in defiance of reports that multiple national governments are scheming to regulate or curtail domestic cryptocurrency usage.
U.K. and Indonesia Plot Bitcoin Regulations
As CCN reported, both the United Kingdom and Indonesia are preparing to implement regulatory crackdowns of varying degrees on cryptocurrency usage within their respective jurisdictions. The U.K. Treasury plans to expand its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations to explicitly bring bitcoin under their purview. This move is generally in line with the ordinary course of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption and — depending on the extent of the regulations — could have a negligible effect on the domestic markets.
Indonesia, on the other hand, is planning to issue a ban on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies sometime next year. The drastic step is being orchestrated by the central bank, which fears that allowing cryptocurrency usage to continue unfettered will threaten the sovereignty of the rupiah, Indonesia’s national currency.
Neither the U.K. nor Indonesia represents a major cryptocurrency market. Indeed, the total value of bitcoin in circulation eclipses the combined M1 money supplies of the two nations.
Source: CIA World Factbook
Nevertheless, the news caused temporary market turbulence, and the total cryptocurrency market cap plunged nearly $50 billion from its all-time high in a matter of hours. However, perhaps recognizing that these announcements should have little effect on the global markets, traders quickly entered a recovery phase.
Source: CoinMarketCap
At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency market cap was valued at $342.6 billion, representing a 24-hour increase of a little more than $5 billion.
Bitcoin Price Holds Near $11,500
The markets spent most of the weekend on an incline, and on Sunday evening the bitcoin price rose to a new all-time high just below $11,900. However, the regulatory concerns discussed above caused the bitcoin price to take a $1,000 hit, from which it has since seen a moderate recovery.
Bitcoin Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap
At present, the bitcoin price is trading at a global average of $11,449, which translates into a market cap of approximately $191.4 billion.
Ethereum Price
The ethereum price followed a similar trajectory over the course of the weekend, rising as high as $482 before experiencing a $30 plunge and subsequent recovery. At present, the ethereum price is valued at $467, which gives the second largest cryptocurrency a market cap of $44.9 billion.
Source: CoinMarketCap
IOTA Storms Into Top Five
On Monday, the majority of cryptocurrency valuations made slight retreats against the value of the dollar. The IOTA price, however, surged by more than 50 percent to rocket it into the fifth spot on in the market cap rankings.
Source: CoinMarketCap
As reported by CCN sister site Hacked, the rally has been fueled by the announcement of a partnership with Microsoft to develop a blockchain-based Internet of Things (IoT) solution that integrates IOTA’s Data Marketplace.
Aside from IOTA, cardano was the only top 10-cryptocurrency to rise against the dollar. Cardano posted a 24-hour increase of approximately one percent, enabling the ninth-largest cryptocurrency to widen its market cap edge on 10th-ranked monero to nearly $500 million.
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