Bitcoin was hurt after a chaotic debut as a legal course in El Salvador

TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Bitcoin licked its wounds on Wednesday, a day after its heaviest losses in 2-1 / 2 months, as the historic adoption in El Salvador of cryptocurrency assets as to legal tender currency caused chaos online and on the street.

The currency was last traded at $ 46,560, after having endured wild trade the previous day, when it reached a nearly four-month high of $ 52,956 before falling 11.1% , its biggest drop since June 2nd.

Analysts said the abrupt withdrawal was due in part to investors who had bought the rumor that the El Salvador movement was now selling the fact.

“I think there was some expectation ahead of this event (El Salvador), similar to what we saw before Coinbase’s listing on the Nasdaq,” said Henrik Andersson, chief investment officer of Apollo Capital, a fund of cryptographic assets in Melbourne, Australia.

On Tuesday, at one point, the digital currency fell to 18.6%, ending the market by more than $ 180 billion.

It was a historic day for Bitcoin, as El Salvador’s experiment of turning it into legal tender began in good spirits.

Technological failures made it difficult to use them while street protests by distrustful citizens erupted in the Central American country.

As bitcoin faltered, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his government bought an additional 150 bitcoins on Tuesday, worth about $ 7 million.

“This has underscored the difficulty in trying to protect the value of bitcoin as its own currency,” said Nana Otsuki, chief economist at Monex Securities. “The purchase did not appear to be effective in stopping its fall.”

Amid the trade frenzy, major U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN.O), Kraken and Gemini struggled with delays in some transactions. They all said their systems have been restored since then.

Aside from that, the U.S. securities regulator has threatened to sue Coinbase Global if the cryptocurrency exchange continues with plans to launch a program that will allow users to earn interest by lending cryptocurrency assets.

Reports of Hideyuki Sano, Anushka Trivedi; Edited by Sam Holmes

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