Bitcoin’s price plunged more than 5 percent on May 11, ending a two-week rally for the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ironically, the dip came just as crypto bulls have been outdoing each other in setting outsized bitcoin price targets for both the short-term and the long run.
The price of one bitcoin hovered at $8,565 as of this writing, down 5.29 percent from 24 hours earlier, according to WorldCoinIndex (see chart below). BTC prices tumbled on rising trading volume, suggesting a sell-off is underway.
During the past two days, South Korean authorities raided the offices of Upbit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. An official at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office did not provide the reason behind the raid, Bloomberg reported.
“Upbit is currently under investigation by prosecutors and is cooperating,” the exchange said in a note to clients. South Korea is a huge cryptocurrency market, and Upbit traded $1.6 billion in virtual currencies during the past 24 hours.
Worldwide Regulatory Crackdowns
Market observers say the Upbit raid is the latest in a series of regulatory crackdowns on the cryptocurrency market around the world.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, the New York Attorney General’s Office launched a fact-finding inquiry in April 2018 and sent a questionnaire to 13 top crypto exchanges.
The Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, were the first CEOs to publicly announce their support for the NYAG investigation, saying they believe greater transparency will boost mainstream adoption of bitcoin and rid the space of scam artists.
The Winklevoss twins recently partnered with Nasdaq to crack down on fraudulent bitcoin and ether trading on their cryptocurrency exchange, the Gemini Trust Company.
Bitcoin Billionaires Winklevoss Twins Crack Down On Cryptocurrency Cheaters. #Economy #Business https://t.co/hIwXmOj3V8
— The Inquisitr (@theinquisitr) April 26, 2018
Meanwhile, Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee has set a whopping $36,000 bitcoin price target for the end of 2019 and said it could clear $64,000 during the year.
“We believe the current path of hash power growth supports a BTC price of about $36,000 by 2019 year end, with a $20,000-$64,000 range,” Sam Doctor, head of data science research at Fundstrat, wrote in an internal report.
CRYPTO: Our quant/data scientist @fundstratQuant publishing #bitcoin mining white paper. Crypto mining economics lead/explain $BTC price—suggests $39,000 per bitcoin by YE19. key takeaways below… pic.twitter.com/f5ZQ4py3jS
— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not the drummer) FSInsight (@fundstrat) May 10, 2018
Lee previously predicted that bitcoin’s price will soar to $25,000 by December 2018, as the Inquisitr has reported. Lee has a pretty good track record with bitcoin price predictions, so his projections aren’t to be ignored.
In the middle of a month-long slump in early-April, Lee confidently predicted that BTC prices would climb after April 17, which was Tax Day in the United States. And that’s exactly what happened.
Despite bitcoin’s erratic price fluctuations and increasingly vocal opponents, Tom Lee is among a steady group of crypto bulls who believe digital currencies are here to stay.
Billionaire Tim Draper Says Bitcoin Is ‘Bigger Than The Internet,’ Sets $250,000 Price Target For 2022. Tim Draper, an early investor in Skype, Tesla, and Hotmail, says bitcoin will be bigger than all three combined. #Economy #Business https://t.co/QJOHA8qlLo
— The Inquisitr (@theinquisitr) April 24, 2018
