Investing.com – In another volatile day of trade, Bitcoin slumped on Thursday as South Korea announced measures to curb speculation in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin tumbled 12.79%, or $1,279.00, on the Bitfinex exchange to trade at $13,702.00 by 9:11AM ET (14:11GMT) and has now plunged around 31% from its December 17 record high.
South Korea -whose citizens are estimated to own approximately 1 million bitcoins and where around 20% of bitcoin transactions reportedly take place- approved measures that include a ban on opening anonymous cryptocurrency accounts, along with new legislation to allow regulators to close virtual coin exchanges if needed.
“Cryptocurrency speculation has been irrationally overheated in Korea,” the government said in the statement. “The government can’t leave the abnormal situation of speculation any longer.”
South Korea further threatened to close any anonymous account, though no details were provided on how the government would follow through on the plan.
The crackdown dented cryptocurrencies across the board. Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap after bitcoin, slumped 9.10% to $683.16, Ripple -the now third largest by market cap that was designed for banks and global money transfers and with one of the more affordable price tags- traded down 4.20% to $1.15721, while Bitcoin Cash -the result of the “fork” from the world’s largest digital currency on August 1 in a move that was designed to be able to process transactions more quickly at a lower cost- tumbled 15.15% to $2,392.800.