Bitcoin slumped to a two-week low Tuesday and other digital tokens including Ethereum, Cardano and XRP all traded lower after the surprise recovery of Colonial Pipeline’s recent cyberattack ransom raised concerns about Bitcoin’s supposed gold-like infallibility.
Bitcoin was down more than 9% at $33,140, extending losses endured Monday amid broader concerns about potentially tighter U.S. monetary policy. Ethereum was down more than 10%, while XRP was down more than 9%. Dogecoin was down 11.45%.
Investigators’ success in tracking down and seizing almost all the Bitcoin ransom paid to the perpetrators of the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline last month raised fresh concerns that Bitcoin is not as secure and untouchable as believed or as advertised.
Bitcoin has still risen 14% this year but the token has plunged from a peak of almost $65,000 in mid-April, casting a pall over the cryptocurrency sector. The selloff was exacerbated by Tesla (TSLA) – Get Report co-founder and billionaire Elon Musk’s public rebuke of the amount of energy used by the servers underpinning the token.
Meantime, a Swiss-Danish group called Concordium AG is prepping to launch a new blockchain technology called Global Transaction Unit, or GTU, that it said will be able to meet if not exceed regulatory concerns and standards.
Backed by one of the founders of Saxo Bank A/S and a director at Volvo Cars, which both count Zhejiang Geely Holding Group as an owner, the project will on Wednesday introduce its blockchain, which has been developed with Denmark’s Aarhus University.
The key difference between GTU and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will be its ability to provide the kind of transparency that regulators and members of the mainstream economy want.
At last check, Bitcoin was down 9.93% at $32,916, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum was down 11.16% at $2501.54, Cardano was down 11.55% at $1.52, and XRP was down 10.39% at 85.69 cents. Meme token Dogecoin was down 12.66% at 32.58 cents.
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