What happened
The price of Polkadot (DOT -6.27%), Uniswap (UNI -3.08%), and Kusama (KSM -6.46%) all plunged this morning, likely based on the several bits of cryptocurrency news that came out recently. They include an interview with Twitter's CFO and China's continued crackdown on crypto mining.
Over the past 24 hours, as of 11:53 a.m. EST today, Polkadot was down by 7.5%, Kusama fell 10.6%, and Uniswap tumbled 9.4%.
So what
Cryptocurrency price swings can sometimes be hard to nail down, but in this case, it appears that Polkadot, Uniswap, and Kusama are all falling based on a handful of negative news in the crypto world.
Let's start with the Wall Street Journal interview with Twitter CFO Ned Segal, published last night, in which he said investing Twitter's corporate money into crypto "doesn't make sense right now." Segal said that cryptocurrencies are too volatile currently, compared with the more traditional assets Twitter owns.
Image source: Getty Images.
While it's no surprise that cryptocurrencies are more volatile than other investments, Segal's comments may have poured some cold water on the idea that Silicon Valley is all in on them.
His comments also contrast Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's view of cryptocurrency. Dorsey's other company, the payments platform Square, has invested $50 million in Bitcoin. And Twitter itself set up a crypto and blockchain team just last week.
Additionally, another bit of negative crypto news came out of China today as a former Chinese Communist Party official was expelled from the party, in part, for allowing cryptocurrency mining.
The move may have indirectly affected crypto prices, as it reminds investors that China -- which was once the largest country for crypto mining -- is still very much against the cryptocurrency space.
Now what
These two bits of news come just a few days after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a proposal for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which would track the price of actual Bitcoins. Right now, only Bitcoin futures ETFs are available.
The news wasn't all that surprising, but it did show that while cryptocurrencies are gaining more mainstream attention, there are still hurdles for this market -- and its investors -- to overcome.
When you add all of this up, it's no surprise why Polkadot, Uniswap, and Kusama dropped today. The cryptocurrency market is still highly volatile, and generally any negative news about larger coins like Bitcoin can cause ripple effects across the entire space.
Investors in Polkadot, Uniswap, and Kusama may want to take today's drop in stride, though, knowing that the value of these coins is falling in sympathy with the broader cryptocurrency market.
