Bitcoin–and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole–plunged this year, after a gravity-defying surge in recent years. The price of the digital coin hit nearly $20,000 late last year. And then in early 2018, it began to fall. Though it hit a few plateaus, the price has still tumbled; today it hovers at a little over $3,000.
GURA: And Gensler is asking lawmakers for their support and for more resources. That makes Senator Lummis nervous. She's worried more rules will make the U.S. less competitive. And the crypto industry is also fighting back. So far this year, it spent more than $2.5 million lobbying lawmakers. Republican Congressman Warren Davidson believes Congress needs to make a decision about what to do with cryptocurrency and soon.

In fact, every newly created blockchain copy comes with a two-part monetary reward: a fixed number of newly minted (“mined”) cryptocurrency units, and a variable number of existing units collected from optional transaction fees — typically less than 1% of the transaction value — paid by buyers.
Such volatility in crypto markets is nothing new. With no formal structure and countless competing exchanges, trading in the digital currency is still akin to settling out in the old American West. Earlier this month, decentralized finance platform Synthetify was forced to halt all trading due to a bug in the platform that provides pricing data. The same software responsible for Synthetify’s troubles was also blamed for a September Bitcoin crash.