Bitcoin price recovers after crash, but threat of new regulation looms over cryptocurrencies

The price of bitcoin is recovering after the cryptocurrency market crashed – but worries are still haunting the entire industry.

While bitcoin has stopped and to some extent reversed its recent slide, there are still concerns that new regulation could be revealed and shove the price down even further.

This week's slide began after South Korea's most senior financial policymaker suggested that the country could ban trading in the country entirely. That was a live option, he said, suggesting that officials would at least force people to use their real names alongside other rules.

And China seemed to repeat a similar suggestion, indicating that it too could ban people within the country from trading cryptocurrencies.

Together, those two events forced bitcoin into a spiral that saw it fall through the $10,000 mark. That was a long way from a few weeks ago, when it was almost touching $20,000.

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Bitcoin price - live updates as market reels from crytocurrency crash

Now, that slide has stopped and the price appears to be increasing slightly. The price is now at $11,800, according to the website Coinbase, up nearly 15 per cent since yesterday.

But despite the swift climb, cryptocurrencies haven't made up for their former losses. Bitcoin is still down 13 per cent over the last week, and 36 per cent over the last month.

And the price could stay that low amid the threat of yet more regulation. France and German lawmakers have said they will take a joint proposal to the G20 meeting in March – which could see world governments impose new rules on cryptocurrency trading.

"We will have a joint Franco-German analysis of the risks linked to bitcoin, regulation proposals and these will be submitted as a joint proposal to our G20 counterparts at the G20 summit in Argentina in March," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters.

"We have a responsibility towards our citizens to explain and reduce the risks," Le Maire's German counterpart Peter Altmaier said at the joint news conference in Paris.

The G20 meeting is likely to be host to much discussion on the future of bitcoin, including yet more countries suggesting that new regulation is required.

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