At the time of writing, Bitcoin dropped. The once towering over $19,000 worth cryptocurrency is now down to a measly—at least for Bitcoin—$11,474.92. And, while perhaps it cannot receive the blame, a big part of this is likely the events recently coming out of South Korea.
South Korea is no slouch to the cryptocurrency game. Though the metrics for measuring this are open to error, South Korea comes in as the third biggest in cryptocurrency, behind only Japan and the U.S., with, according to a study, more than a third of the salaried population being investors. So, when something of note happens there, it can affect the entire market.
And, what that something of note was, was a threat of a crackdown. Despite so much of the population having a stake in the currency, the government has a negative eye on the topic. While it is not decided yet, and the decision will still take time to conclude, officials in the South Korean government are discussing shutting down exchanges.
However, before anyone becomes too worried, the citizens of South Korea have already raised over 200,000 signatures to petition the government to prevent this from happening. So, there is still hope.
By Brandon Scott
