Dado Ruvic | Reuters
The price of bitcoin took another hit on Friday as other cryptocurrencies including ether and doge also saw their values fall.
Bitcoin was trading at $35,292 at around 8 a.m. ET and has fallen over 9% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Coin Metrics.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency has been trying to recover after a week of turmoil that saw its price tumble 30% to around $30,000 last week.
It briefly climbed back above $40,000 on Wednesday before losing some of those gains.
Elsewhere, ethereum’s price has fallen around 12% in the last 24 hours to $2,426 a coin, while dogecoin’s price has fallen around 8% to 3 cents.
Cryptocurrencies continue to divide opinion. In a 41-page note last week, Goldman analysts shared their views on whether the likes of bitcoin and ethereum should be considered an asset class or not.
The latest price falls comes a day after longtime bitcoin bull Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark Investment Management, argued that bitcoin has a place in the world of deflation.
Emerging markets — where currencies are often linked closely to commodity price cyclicality — could ultimately spur outperformance in bitcoin, she said.
“I think what will happen as their currencies come under pressure, the velocity of their money will increase as more and more of their populations shift into bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies and assets,” Wood said at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 conference on Thursday.
Last week’s crypto sell-off came after authorities in China and the U.S. moved to tighten regulation and tax compliance on cryptocurrencies. Chinese authorities called for tighter regulation on crypto mining and trading, reinforcing rules announced in 2017, and the U.S. Treasury announced that it would require stricter crypto compliance with the IRS.
The price recovered after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Mondaay he spoke to bitcoin miners in North America about renewable energy solutions amid growing concerns about the crypto’s carbon footprint. Elsewhere, hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio revealed in an article published on Monday that he owns some bitcoin.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald.
