Bitcoin, Ethereum prices up as cryptocurrency bounces back from 2 weeks of losses

Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are making a comeback, following two weeks of market losses.

Bitcoin rebounded 13 per cent for a value of USD$38,000, while the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, is up more than 27 per cent, worth just under USD$2,475.

Bitcoin’s value was chopped in half just weeks after April’s record peak of $64,895. The cryptocurrency’s markets operate 24/7, meaning prices can drastically change at any hour.

“Many point to bitcoin’s volatility as untenable,” RBC Capital Markets’ Amy Wu Silverman wrote in a research note published on Saturday. “Indeed, Bitcoin makes severe and dizzying swings.”

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Bitcoin’s latest downward swing came shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as payment for its vehicles, citing environmental concerns.

“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter on May 12.

“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”

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On top of that, China announced it would be cracking down on Bitcoin mining and trading on Friday, as part of its ongoing efforts to fend off financial risks.

China’s statement came days after three Chinese industry bodies tightened a ban on banks and payment companies providing crypto-related services.

“Recently, crypto currency prices have skyrocketed and plummeted, and speculative trading of cryptocurrency has rebounded, seriously infringing on the safety of people’s property and disrupting the normal economic and financial order,” they said in the statement.

— with files from Reuters