Cryptocurrency Collapsed
If in 2017 the crypto currency triumphed with a fantastic rally rise, then not in the first quarter of 2018.
By 2017, bitcoin trends for example, have pushed the price up 1.375 percent. This year on the contrary, the price is swooping.
From January to March 2018, the movement of the crypto currency was extremely volatile, fueled by news flows and rapid changes in investor sentiment.
Bitcoin fell 49 percent in the first quarter of 2018, trading around 7,115 dollars.
This is the worst quarter for bitcoin since the third quarter of 2011, when bitcoin fell 68 percent and the second worst quarter since it began trading regularly in 2010.
Drived by bitcoin, other crypto currencies collapsed. Ethereum briefly reached 1,369 dollars on January 13, 2018 but ended up around 394 dollars at the close of trading Thursday, down 47 percent from the end of 2017 when it closed at $ 743.
Meanwhile, Ripple had reached 3.84 US dollars on January 4, 2018 but closed at the end of the first quarter of 2018 at 52 cents, down 78 percent from December 31, 2017 closing of 2.37 US dollars.
The total market value of the crypto currency sector fell 54 percent during the first quarter of 2018 to 277 billion US dollars, according to Coinmarketcap.
There are several catalysts for the decline, including in February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been investigating this newborn industry by declaring the crypto currency to be unlisted securities.
Initial offerings or initial coin offering (ICO) is also slow. The frequent supply of technology and software, can harm the bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
Another negative sentiment is the ban on crypto currency ads and ICO ads in social media and search engines, such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc.
Another problem is the inability of crypto currency exchange to effectively protect investors' funds from hackers.
Crypto currency exchange from Japan, Coincheck for example, has lost bitcoin and other crypto currencies in January 2018 and worth 500 million US dollars due to cyber attacks, although later said it had to replace investors' losses.