More bad news pushes bitcoin’s value below $9,000
Bitcoin's month-long price slide continued on Thursday as the virtual currency fell below $9,000 for the first time since November. As we publish this article, one bitcoin is worth $8,700. That's down 12 percent over the last 24 hours and 55 percent from December's peak of $19,500.
The latest price decline comes amid growing concerns that the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem has become rife with scams and other questionable behavior. None of these developments have been focused on bitcoin specifically, but the cryptocurrency ecosystem is highly interconnected. All the other major cryptocurrencies have suffered losses over the last 24 hours, and many virtual currencies have seen their value decline by double digits.
The first bit of bad news this week was Facebook's announcement that it was restricting cryptocurrency ads on its various platforms.