By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The price of Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level since 28th January on Tuesday, in the wake of more stringent Chinese measures to regulate the cryptocurrency market.
On Monday, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, announced it had summoned some major banks and payments firms, including Alipay, urging them to check client accounts for cryptocurrency transactions and cut their payment channels.
Alipay has confirmed it will set up a monitoring system targeting key websites and account, and blacklist those merchants involved in digital currency transactions.
The latest measures weighed on the major cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin dropping below the key psychological support level of $30,000 which had held since the ‘flash crash’ in late May.
Thoughts from the analysts
Some analysts have argued that dropping below $30,000 could lead to further losses for Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.
“If it goes, expect a bloodbath,” Chief Market Analyst at markets.com Neil Wilson said in relation to the $30,000 level.
Jeffrey Halley, Senior Market Analyst at OANDA also expects further weakness.
“Failure of $30,000 will open the trapdoor to a sub-$20,000 move,” Halley said in an emailed note.
At 13:42BST Bitcoin was trading around $29,500, down 8.5% in the last 24 hours.