Binance

Well, it sure seems like we’re in for another faulty end-of-year mark for bitcoin. At press time, the currency has fallen by roughly $800 over the past 24 hours and the asset is now trading at $7,400.

Bitcoin Falls; Zuckerberg to Blame?

The sentiment is that this all has to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony today. Zuckerberg – the famed CEO of Facebook – is set to speak before a congressional committee today regarding Libra, the cryptocurrency being released by the social media giant in 2020. As we all know, Congress has not particularly warmed to Libra in the past. David Marcus, the man in charge of Facebook’s blockchain division, recently faced a separate hearing regarding his position with Libra and what the main goals of the coin are.

Sadly, he’s not the only one facing the heat. Zuckerberg is the man that Congress has long sought to hear from, and now they’re finally getting that chance. It seems the pressure being faced by the crypto community is a little too much to bear, and the bitcoin price has fallen extraordinarily as a result.

But it’s not just BTC that’s eating it. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the number one competitor to bitcoin, has also fallen to about $159 at press time. This marks a loss of nearly $20 in the past day. That loss is even larger when one considers that ETH was trading for well above the $190 line just a few weeks ago.

In addition, bitcoin cash is trading at $209 when it was trading for about $230 yesterday, and Litecoin has fallen below the $50 mark and is now trading for $48. Every cryptocurrency appears down across the board, and analysts agree – the pressure on Libra is to blame.

Equity strategist Matt Maley from Miller Tabak & Co. explains:

The main reason for this is because of the immense pressure Facebook’s Libra is getting from Washington. That is basically making it much less likely that bitcoin will go mainstream as quickly as some of its bulls think it will.

Nobody Really Trusts the Social Media Platform, Anymore

Facebook has not really addressed all Congress’ specific fears, which explains why so many members are working to see what Zuckerberg has to say. For example, many of the present concerns are centered on the coin’s abilities to hinder money laundering or other white-collar crimes. As a global currency, Libra potentially opens the door to such behavior.

At the end of the day, however, this can all probably be blamed on the fact that Facebook once shared ties with Cambridge Analytica. The scandal emerged in 2018 and Facebook has been accused of selling users’ private data to third parties for years. The company later was forced to pay a hefty fine and trust in the platform has fallen significantly.