Markets

Bitcoin price bounces back by nearly $1,000 as market moves on from recent drama

Key Points
  • Bitcoin has recovered by more than a third since its low on Friday.
  • The recent fall was caused by a crackdown by China's regulators.
  • But cryptocurrency investors are realizing that China no longer dominates the market.
Bitcoin market ‘moving forward’ following China crackdown: Circle CEO
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Bitcoin market ‘moving forward’ following China crackdown: Circle CEO

The price for the digital currency bitcoin is recovering after suffering a massive drop last week.

Bitcoin was trading at $3,964 Monday afternoon, according to CoinDesk, recovering 34 percent from Friday's low of $2,951.15, its lowest since early August.

Bitcoin lost about 14.7 percent last week, extending a sharp drop since briefly topping $5,000 in early September.

The recent fall was triggered by several factors. Some large bitcoin exchanges in China announced plans to close by the end of the month as China cracked down on digital currencies and banned any new initial coin offerings as a way of raising funds.

Bitcoin also took a hit last week after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon criticized it as a fraud and compared the popularity of virtual currencies to the tulip bulb mania of the 17th century.

The bitcoin market is recovering because investors are getting over the initial shock and realizing that China no longer dominates the market.

A member of bitcoin trading club poses with bitcoin medals at the club's meeting in Tokyo.
Yoshikazu Tsuno | AFP | Getty Images

"The market is realizing that it doesn't really matter what happens in China anymore, the exchanges based there no longer dominate trading activity and more mature liquidity from institutional players in Japan, Korea and Europe is providing a boost to this next bull cycle," said Aurelien Menant, founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based token exchange Gatecoin, told CNBC via email on Monday.

"It's also important to remember that the crackdown in China was targeting the activities of the local exchanges for not complying with the Chinese financial regulatory environment and not a crackdown on bitcoin and blockchain technologies."

Despite the recent fall, bitcoin is still enjoying a remarkable 2017. The price for the cryptocurrency is up 293 percent since the start of the year.

Charles Hayter, founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, said it is still unclear whether the move by Chinese regulators will crystalize into a full, permanent ban on digital currencies.

"Earlier in the year the market was bullish whilst the Chinese exchanges were facing regulatory implementation and Japan picked up the slack," he told CNBC via email.

"The market is moving on and realizing the price drama was excessive and overdone."

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