The cryptocurrency market has remained under pressure this week, as prices of digital currencies, including bitcoin (BTC) and ripple, tumbled nearly 20 per cent between January 5 and 12 amid talks that South Korea was mulling a trading ban on digital currenciesSome analysts feel such an action by Seoul may push other nations to consider similar moves.A Wall Street consultancy on Thursday predicted a major crash in the cryptocurrency market this year. "As an asset, we valued bitcoin using a cost of production approach and a store of value approach, resulting in values of $2,161 and $687, respectively. To value BTC as a currency, we estimated its utilisation for both legal , retail transactions payments, as well as payments in the black market. "I can say almost with certainty that cryptocurrencies will come to a bad end," Buffett told CNBC in an interview.Bitcoin remains the top dog in the cryptocurrency market, but has tanked to $13,580 as of January 12 from $16,917 on January 5, whereas ripple slipped to $2 from $2.50. Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin have slipped over 5 per cent each in the same period.On the other hand, ethereum has soared 25 per cent to $1,204 as of January 12 from $962.77 on January 5.Bitcoins or cryptocurrencies are not a legal tender in India and are not recognised as a medium of exchange, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said on January 5.

Source: Economic Times January 12, 2018 08:15 UTC