Bitcoin BTC/USD fell below the key $30,000 mark in the early hours of Tuesday as the New Jersey-based privately held lending platform BlockFi became the latest to face regulatory pressures.
What Happened: The apex coin traded 6.48% lower at $29,699.02 over 24 hours at press time. BTC is down 10.38% for the week.
See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)
The fall in BTC came among a wider decline seen in cryptocurrencies whose collective market capitalization fell 7.04% to $1.2 trillion at press time.
On Monday, BlockFi received an order from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities to suspend applications for new interest accounts in the state, as per a tweet from BlockFi CEO Zac Prince, first seen on The Block.
BTC has yielded 1.74% since the year began. The cryptocurrency has declined 54.25% since touching an all-time high of $64,863.10 in April.
Why It Matters: Prince said that BlockFi is engaging with the regulators to help them understand the company’s products.
See Also: Is Now A Good Time To Buy Ethereum?
“BIA [BlockFi Interest Account] is not a security, and we therefore disagree with the action by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities,” said the executive on Twitter.
Last month, regulators in Canada’s British Columbia had published a statement of allegations against Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
The Changpeng Zhao-led exchange was ordered by United Kingdom regulators to stop activities in the country.
Bitcoin is facing increased regulatory scrutiny in China, Europe, and West Africa, as per a CoinDesk report.
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