TOKYO: Bitcoin fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday to a one-week low of $15,800 at cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp, losing almost one-fifth of its value from a peak hit just three days ago.The digital currency has been sliding since it reached a record high of $19,666 on Sunday, when the exchange giant CME Group launched bitcoin futures, one week after its rival Cboe Global Markets listed the world's first bitcoin futures. "The listing of two bitcoin futures makes it easier for institutional players to trade bitcoins. "Given that he has a lot of followers, his tweets could have had an impact on Japanese traders, which in turn could have moved the market," Sakuma said.Bitcoin has since pared some of the losses and last traded at $16,939, down 4.3 percent for the day.Its decline since Sunday is hardly a major correction for digital currency. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972.Many financial professionals have said bitcoin, which now has market capitalisation of about $275 billion, slightly bigger than Visa Inc, is a typical bubble, given how small the actual number of transactions are.The market is highly inefficient, with bitcoin futures trading much above cash bitcoins while the gaps of price quotes between various exchanges are also very large, they say.

Source: The Star December 20, 2017 03:56 UTC