The decline in the value of bitcoin carried into 2018, with the cryptocurrency down in trading on Tuesday (Jan. 2), marking the first time the popular cryptocurrency started the year lower since 2015.
According to news in Bloomberg as of late Monday (Jan. 1), bitcoin was trading at $13,624.56, a far cry from the $19,511 it hit on Dec. 18. On Sunday, it was trading around $14,000 but has since declined. Last year bitcoin started off strong, rising 3.6 percent on the first day of trading in 2017, noted Bloomberg.
The decline in the ever-volatile cryptocurrency comes as Goldman Sachs is warning about the negative impact it can have on the U.S. economy. In the report “10 Questions for 2018,” issued last Friday (Dec. 29), Jan Hatzius said that financial imbalances within the credit market and cryptocurrencies could cast a shadow on the U.S. economy for 2018.
“Asset valuations in some areas — especially credit — have risen to high levels by historical standards … While we have not seen the type of large credit expansions that would be most worrisome for Fed officials concerned about financial imbalances, there are now some signs of speculative behavior in financial markets, e.g. the cryptocurrency boom,” Hatzius wrote in the report.
According to Fortune, Hatzius also gave predictions about Federal Reserve rate increases, 2.6 percent growth for U.S. gross domestic products, a 3.5 percent decline in the unemployment rate and the yield curve not inverting.
Goldman Sachs’ Hatzius is not the only one keeping a close eye on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. India’s finance minister has joined the list of people decrying the trading of bitcoin and other associated cryptocurrencies, claiming that it is, at its core, the same as buying into a Ponzi scheme.
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