It was a day of losses in cryptocurrency markets.

Bitcoin price and cryptocurrency valuations continued yesterday’s downward slide this morning. At 13:35 UTC, a single bitcoin was changing hands for $9,854.38 on Coinbase’s exchange, down 9.51% today.

On CoinMarketCap.com, the cryptocurrency was trading at $9,998.13, a decline of 9.54% from its price 24 hours ago. Bitcoin’s price fell below $10,000 last Friday. But it rallied to almost touch $12,000 on Saturday morning. With today’s decline, it has shed all its gains since last Friday.

Cryptocurrency markets, which had swept past the $500 billion valuation mark in recent days, were lined with red figures. Trading volumes in cryptocurrencies were down from two days ago. The overall market cap for cryptocurrencies was $427 billion, a decline of 17.5% from their highs last Saturday morning.

Most cryptocurrencies registered double-digit falls in their valuation from 24 hours ago. Among the top 10 most-traded cryptocurrencies, Ripple counterpart Stellar was the biggest loser, falling by 14% in its valuation.

Bitcoin cash and Litecoin were the other big losers. The latter coin had shot up by 32% last week to erase its losses for the year. (See also: LiteCoin Spikes 32% On LitePay News.) As of this writing, however, it was again down by 15% since January 1.

Even NEO, a cryptocurrency which has mostly bucked market movement to increase its valuation, was off by 11% from its price 24 hours ago.

The decline in cryptocurrency prices has occurred despite a slew of positive news.

Ripple sustained its blitz of media announcements by releasing two papers related to its cryptocurrency XRP’s security and network. The San Francisco-based company also said that five banks and financial institutions across four countries were testing its technology.

IOTA, a cryptocurrency for the Internet of Things ecosystem, was referenced as a partner for German car maker Volkswagen during a presentation by Johann Jungwirth, chief digital officer at the company, at the Bosch Connected World event recently.

According to Jungwirth, IOTA’s integration with Volkswagen offers several advantages, such as offline transactions and security, to the company. But he did not provide a timeframe for implementation or integration of the technology into its cars. As of this writing, IOTA is the 12th most valuable cryptocurrency and has a market cap of $4.4 billion.

Regulation News

After criticizing and dismissing cryptocurrencies, governments in Europe are preparing for a future with them by putting regulatory measures in place. The German financial regulator has released a letter of advice stating it is planning a “precise case-by-case examination” of ICO tokens. According to the agency, tokens can represent financial instruments, such as stocks and derivatives.

Meanwhile, France’s markets regulatory agency said cryptocurrency exchanges fall under the European Union’s MiFID II regulations, which aim to create a single EU market, and might need to comply with “tough” standards for reporting transactions. According to Bloomberg, they might even be barred from advertising their products electronically.

Finally, the UK’s Treasury Committee has launched an inquiry into cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technology. Among other things, it will look into risks generated by crypto volatility, laundering, and cyber-crime as well as opportunities for innovation using them within the finance ecosystem.

In Asia, the government accounting agency in South Korea, a prominent player in the cryptocurrency space, is busy preparing an accounting standard for cryptocurrencies and plans to release it next month. (See also: Bitcoin Government Regulation Around The World).

Regulation of cryptocurrencies is an important indicator of bitcoin prices. Legal rules will bring order and cohesion to the wild price swings of cryptocurrency markets and enable individual and large institutional investors to put money into them. In turn, this will boost liquidity and help curb volatility.

Investing in cryptocurrencies and other Initial Coin Offerings ("ICOs") is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or other ICOs. Since each individual's situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date this article was written, the author owns small amounts of bitcoin.