Bitcoin's price has been in freefall this week. The price of one bitcoin hovered at $9,757, down 8.6% from 24 hours earlier, according to WorldCoinIndex.

The dramatic price drop occurred shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it will require cryptocurrency exchanges to register with the agency.

Until now, the opaque crypto market has been largely unregulated. In a statement this afternoon, the SEC explained why it plans to change that:

      If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an 'exchange,' as defined by the federal securities laws, then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration."

      The SEC staff has concerns that many online trading platforms appear to investors as SEC-registered and regulated marketplaces when they are not. Many platforms refer to themselves as "exchanges," which can give the misimpression to investors that they are regulated or meet the regulatory standards of a national securities exchange.

There are longstanding rumors that bitcoin prices are being manipulated by "bitcoin whales," or individuals who hold huge amounts of BTC. About 1,000 people hold 40% of all the bitcoin in the world, according to Bloomberg, so it's no surprise they exert a disproportionate impact on BTC price movements.

Today, one bitcoin whale revealed that he has sold about $400 million in bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash since September 2017. Nobuaki Kobayashi, a Tokyo-based attorney and bankruptcy trustee for the now-defunct Mt. Gox crypto exchange, said he's raising money to pay off Mt. Gox creditors.

Mt. Gox, which operated between 2010 and 2014, was once the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, handling 70% to 80% of all trading in the world. The platform went bankrupt in 2014 after it lost 850,000 bitcoins (worth about $500 million) due to a hack.

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Read more: Bitcoin Price Tumbles Below $10k As SEC Says Crypto Exchanges Must Register With Agency | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-price-tumbles-cryptocurrency-bloodbath-continues/#ixzz596G60poQ