The world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has begun to dip in price after the trillion dollar Infrastructure Bill causing disagreement in the Senate was passed by senators today (August 10).
Bipartisan efforts to clarify the wording of a provision included in the Infrastructure Bill, that defines anyone participating in the transfer of digital or crypto assets like cryptocurrencies as a ‘broker’, had looked to succeed on Monday – sending the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and coins across the board soaring in value.
But the failure of efforts to materialise has dealt a blow to the burgeoning cryptocurrency market in the US as the Infrastructure Bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where attempts to change the wording of the crypto provision should continue.
Here are the latest prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin in the wake of the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Bill – and its criticised crypto bill provision – passing in the US Senate.
What is the Infrastructure Bill and its cryptocurrency provision?
President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill is set to make sweeping and transformative changes to the shape of the US, with $66 billion established to improve rail transport, $65 billion to bolster high speed internet and broadband, and over $70 billion to aid clean energy efforts.
But the Bill also includes a provision which could reshape the cryptocurrency sector, as the Democrat administration continues to pursue a tough line against the rapid rise of the unregulated crypto market in the US.
With an expanded definition of ‘broker’ to include many average traders and small developers working in the industry, the provision would make crypto miners and transaction validators vulnerable to the Internal Revenue Service’s strict reporting requirements.
Digital rights campaigners and leading voices in the crypto sector have been sounding the alarm over the provision in the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Bill, with many claiming that it would lead to enhanced surveillance over citizens operating in digital, decentralised spaces.
Lia Holland, campaigns & communications director at US digital rights non-profit, Fight for the Future, called the bill in its current form “unworkable” and said that it “fundamentally misunderstands how cryptocurrency and decentralisation works.”
The Infrastructure Bill, having passed with a majority of 39 senators without proposed amendments lodged by bipartisan senators to tackle the wording, will now be debated in the US House of Representatives.
What is Bitcoin worth today?
As of 9.59am, Bitcoin’s price today (August 10) had peaked at $46,028.06 or £33,129.98 according to CoinDesk.
This comes after the coin increased by over 5% in value to a price of more than $46,500 on Monday as hopes for a compromise in the Senate over the Infrastructure Bill buoyed the coin to a new recent high.
Even as the coin begins to shed value at prices between $44-45K, Bitcoin remains at its highest value in almost three months after the coin recorded its peak price of $64,829.14 in April.
Since then, the currency has been plagued with higher levels of volatility as governments and regulators worldwide clamped down on the industry.
The cryptocurrency crash in late June also led to a similar fluctuation in the price and availability of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) as reports of the dumping of these much-needed components for mining rigs in China amid the crackdown sent prices skyrocketing worldwide.
Following the move, countries like South Korea also pledged to tackle the rise in money laundering taking place via cryptocurrency, while the Metropolitan Police announced that it had successfully closed in on a huge UK cryptocurrency money-laundering operation.
On July 13, the Met declared that special investigators had made the UK’s largest cryptocurrency seizure yet, and one of the world’s largest seizures, seizing a whopping £180m worth of cryptocurrency.
In turn, cryptocurrency exchange platforms such as Binance have been feeling the heat across the world as regulators and governments have started to pay close attention to the operations of such platforms in the wake of the global crackdown on crypto.
The result of this saw Bitcoin’s highest prices sliced in half in June, with the coin struggling to break out of the low to mid $30k price range until it received a welcome boost from Tesla founder Elon Musk in his appearance at major Bitcoin conference in July.
The bullish rise and increased confidence in Bitcoin will likely lead it up to the $50k threshold soon enough, but market insiders expect to see further resistance at this level.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA said: “Bitcoin has found its groove once more over the last week, rallying strongly since last Wednesday after it saw plenty of support around $37,500 – the 38.2% retracement of the July lows to highs.
“Now very much back into bullish territory, the question is how far it can go this time around.
“In the near-term, getting back above $50,000 will be the next test, although it could see some resistance around $47,000 – 50% retracement of April highs to June lows.”
Are Ethereum, Dogecoin and Ripple prices down?
With all coins tending to move in tandem with Bitcoin, Ethereum was trading down slightly at $3,109.00, or £2,247.54, as of 7.35pm on Tuesday
A popular cryptocurrency synonymous with the rising crypto trend of NFTs, Ethereum has an all time high of $4,382.73 which it reached in May’s cryptocurrency boom, but it has struggled to return to this peak since.
The hype surrounding popular memecoin Dogecoin had appeared to diminish recently as new coins took centre stage, but it likewise showed considerable growth – trading at $0.266060 (£0.189298) at 8pm on Monday.
Dogecoin’s price is now fluctuating around $0.248145 (£0.179388) today, while Cardano prices fluctuate around $1.58 (£1.14), XRP Ripple at $0.822381 (£0.594511) and Stellar at $0.305048 (£0.220523) as of 7.30pm on Tuesday.