Bitcoin is heading for its biggest monthly drop since January 2015

Bitcoin is headed for its worst monthly decline since January 2015 this month amid increasing scrutiny from regulators on the cryptocurrency space.

On Tuesday Bitcoin was trading at around $10,249.56, according to CoinDesk, which tracks the price of the cryptocurrency based on a number of major exchanges.

On January 1, the cryptocurrency traded at $13,412.44. Wednesday's price marked a 23.6 percent decline. But bitcoin did hit a low of $9,627.89 on Wednesday, which represented a 28.2 percent decline.

So far, this is the biggest monthly decline since a fall of 30.9 percent in January 2015. In fact, January is typically a bad month for bitcoin — the cryptocurrency has fallen in four out of five of the January in the period between 2013 and 2017.

So far this month, nearly $60 billion has been wiped off the value of bitcoin, according to analysis of data from Coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, have suffered from closer regulatory scrutiny, which is weighing on their price. And on Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it had obtained a court order to halt and freeze the assets of what is likely the largest initial coin offering ever. Meanwhile, Facebook said Tuesday that it was banning ads that promote cryptocurrencies.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Trader Bozhidar Arabadzhiev

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