[ad_1]
Those who have billed bitcoins as a store of value, or "digital gold," may have been disappointed by its performance this week. As bitcoin tumbled, the U.S. stock market as much as 1,300 points in two days, its biggest sell-off since February.
Joe DiPasquale, CEO of the cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds, BitBull Capital, said the uncertainty around stocks bled into cryptocurrency markets.
"When we saw the cryptocurrency market as well," he said. "I think there was an initial jolt two to a larger market activity and the sell off."
Bitcoin has been hovering between $ 6,000 and $ 8,000 since the beginning of summer. DiPasquale said more positive crypto-related news, like an investment from Yale's endowment, or an ETF winning approval could be the bump cryptocurrencies need to break out of that range.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, and multiple senators brought up about the possibility for nefarious use cases like money laundering. But the most vocal crypto skeptic was economist Nouriel Roubini, who is nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for predicting the 2008 financial crisis.
Roubini called cryptocurrencies the "mother of all scams," and called its 50 percent losses this year "crypto-apocalypse." The total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies is down by more than 60 percent, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at the Washington-based lobbying group Coin Center, took a starkly different stance. Van Valkenburgh said that he is not widely accepted as a payment method.
WATCH: Why you should not panic when stocks are getting slammed
