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Bitcoin Crashes Below $30,000 For First Time Since January

China’s central bank recently told payment firms like Alibaba to not provide crypto-related services, sparking a sharp decline in Bitcoin value.

Bitcoin Crashes Below $30,000 For First Time Since January
AP Photo / Vincent Yu, File
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The price of a Bitcoin is back below $30,000. This is such a crash, at one point Tuesday morning, Bitcoin even turned negative for the year.

Bitcoin started the week at $34,306 before losing over $5,000 in value, hitting a low of $28,858. That’s below the $29,000 mark where it ended 2020. 

The volatile currency started seeing its value slide in May after China's central bank summoned payments firms like Alibaba and other major lenders and told them to stop crypto-related services. 

Bitcoin's value also fell dramatically after tweets from Elon Musk — he reversed his approach to Bitcoin over environmental concerns, saying Tesla would no longer accept the cryptocurrency as payment. 

With Tuesday's losses, Bitcoin has lost half of its all time high value of $64,000, hit in mid-April.

Not all governments are pushing back on cryptocurrencies, though. In early June, El Salvador became the first country to approve the creation of a law that would make Bitcoin legal tender in the country.