By Anayo Blessing Mercy
A dramatic meltdown of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency appears to have happened, leaving investors counting their loses after one of the most distabilizing plunges in recent times.
The cryptocurrency world experienced a total meltdown this week in a sell-off that clearly illustrated the risks of experimental and unregulated digital currencies, with the price of Bitcoin dipping to its lowest point since 2020. More than $300billion has been wiped out by the crash in crypto prices since Monday.
Bitcoin and the concept of decentralized cryptocurrency started gaining popularity in 2011, after the severe worldwide economic crisis that occurred in the early financial crisis with pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” who penned the original white paper remaining anonymous till date.
The cryptocurrency meltdown was alleged to be connected with the sharp drop after the US bureau of labor statistics reported consumer prices for April were higher than expected, causing investors to sell off riskier asset such as cryptocurrency.
The whole market is still noticeably down over the last week. Ethereum, for instance has been particularly hard hit and lost 24 percent of its value in the last seven days.
To bring it home, Nigeria embraced cryptocurrency sometime in 2021, becoming one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to crypto adoption. However, the Federal Government of Nigeria had put in place several measures to ban cryptocurrency, which has triggered anger among Nigerians who see crypto as a safe haven in a downward economy.
