Have we just seen a cryptocurrency meltdown or just another blip in a highly-volatile global coin market in urgent need of a regulatory reboot? Over $500 billion (£400bn) of crypto value was wiped out in less than a fortnight resembling the dot-com boom of 20 years ago. And we all know what happened then. At the turn of the century the tech stock market bubble well and truly burst. Nasdaq crashed. Companies without a business model, yet having multi-million valuations, went to the wall and once-eager investors were declared bankrupt. What cryptocoin and dot-com have in common is a dramatic emergence and impact on stock markets.The difference is that the former is, as yet, unregulated, making it harder to predict. The pattern certainly compares with the frenzy and fate of those dot-coms. Back then it was Internet stocks trading through the roof (this time read digital currencies) and money flowing like water (this time electronically). Bitcoin was created around 2009, as a response to the global financial crash the previous year. It remains, by far, the market leader and only recently it was consolidating at $50,000 (£40,000) after hitting an all-time high last November of $68,000 (£55,000).
Full story : Crypto needs rules to rein in volatility.
