Over the past week, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices have crashed, wiping out $1.4 trillion in value from the combined crypto market. Bitcoin prices fell below $33,000 per bitcoin this week, more than 50% below its November peak. The second-largest cryptocurrency by value, Ethereum, crashed to $2,300 per ether, down from almost $5,000 late last year.
Furthermore, the Biden administration is reportedly working on an executive order that emphasizes the potential economic, regulatory, and national security challenges prospectively posed by cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin’s hash rate, which refers to the measure of computational power per second used when mining, is above 175 exahash per second and recently reached an all-time high, the mining industry could be slowed by the global shortage of semiconductor chips.
