The values of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether are plummeting again and—as is sometimes but not always the case—the reason is pretty clear.
As reported on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs (GS) has apparently deprioritized its plans to establish a cryptocurrency trading desk. It’s the latest in a string of signs that the traditional finance sector is cooling on Bitcoin and other virtual coins, in the aftermath of the great crash that began in December.
In Goldman’s case, Business Insider reported that the investment bank backed away because of the regulatory uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrencies. It was originally planning to launch the trading desk this summer.
The latest crash began Wednesday after the Goldman news broke, but it accelerated into Thursday.
At the time of writing on Thursday morning, the value of Bitcoin was down more than 12% over the preceding 24 hours, to a value of around $6,450. Ethereum took an even worse hit, down almost 19%, XRP was down more than 12%, and Bitcoin Cash and EOS were both down more than 20%.
“A lot of retail investors’ hopes for a bigger institutional presence were really being driven by Goldman Sachs,” Stephen Innes, Oanda’s APAC head of trading, told Bloomberg.
While the Goldman report was clearly the biggest factor here, it wasn’t the only negative news to hit the cryptocurrency world this week. Belgium’s financial regulator said Monday that people should beware of new cryptocurrency trading platforms as many are fraudulent.