SINGAPORE: Bitcoin’s rough week looks set to end on a sour note.The virtual currency fell 6.1% to US$8,758.09 at 3:43 p.m. Hong Kong time on Friday, after earlier losing as much as 10%.Bitcoin has slumped more than 20% this week amid increased regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and Japan, an attempted theft at one of the biggest trading venues, and news that the bankruptcy trustee for Mt. Gox has started selling the now-defunct exchange’s holdings to repay creditors.“The screen is flashing red today and people are getting fearful,” said Caleb Yap, co-founder of Singapore Bitcoin Club.“Weak hands are definitely wanting to sell. Gox can dump US$400mil of Bitcoin just like that and there’s still billions left, the fear is when is the big drop coming.”Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, disclosed on Wednesday in Tokyo that he sold about US$400mil of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash since late September, part of the hoard left behind when the exchange collapsed four years ago. Kobayashi is studying further sales of the US$1.8bil remaining.Signs of growing regulatory scrutiny have added to investor jitters.

Source: The Star March 09, 2018 09:00 UTC