Bitcoin Renews Sell-Off As South Korea Clamps Down

Bitcoin’s descent continued on Monday, sliding 9% in late-morning trading after the cryptocurrency crumbled last week amid growing concerns from regulators in the U.S. and Asia.

X Monday’s drop followed reports that South Korea, where cryptocurrency trading has boomed, might try to tax the market and make it share details of user transactions. Meanwhile, more research in recent days has raised fresh concerns about security and fraud in the crypto-space, on top of longstanding concerns of a bubble.

Bitcoin sank 9% to $10,451.04, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum fell 8.7% to $957.48.

As reported, South Korea said it would “collect up to 24.2 percent of corporate and local income taxes” on the nation’s cryptocurrency exchanges this year. The government will make those exchanges share data related to user transactions with banks late this month or early February.

Last week, cryptocurrency traders also appeared to be spooked as the chorus of warnings from regulators grew louder. South Korea has been weighing whether to shutter local cryptocurrency exchanges, while a China central bank official said centralized trading of such digital assets and related businesses should be outlawed.

The SEC also said “significant investor protection issues” needed to be looked at before sponsors begin offering cryptocurrency funds to retail investors.

Research by Ernst & Young has also found that more than 10% of the funds generated by initial coin offerings are stolen by hackers. Research from Chainalysis found that at least $90 million of Bitcoin alone was stolen through scams, ransomware and hacking.

Among Bitcoin-related stocks, Bitcoin Investment Trust , an investment vehicle that attempts to track Bitcoin, sank 5.4% in the stock market. Overstock.com, which has made a bigger push into blockchain — the record-keeping technology behind Bitcoin transactions — rose 4.9%.