The crypto market plummeted again over the weekend, amid concerns over a crackdown on bitcoin mining in China and a policy tilt at the US Federal Reserve.

Bitcoin dived by as much as 9% on Monday, dropping to $32,288 — its lowest price in almost two weeks. Ether, meanwhile, slid by as much as 12%, dipping below $2,000 for the first time in nearly a month.

At the time of writing, Coindesk lists their prices as $32,448 and $1,959 respectively.

Analysts attributed the dip to two key factors: a hawkish pivot in policy at the Federal Reserve that reduced the appeal of risky assets, and China’s ongoing clampdown on crypto mining.

Beijing has been stepping up its efforts to curb cryptocurrencies in China, which accounts for as much as 70% of the world’s crypto supply, according to some estimates.

Authorities in the Chinese province of Sichuan ordered crypto-mining projects in the region to close last Friday, and other regulators in key mining hubs in the country have imposed similarly harsh measures.

The ban means that more than 90% of China’s Bitcoin mining capacity is estimated to be shut down, according to a report by government-owned media outlet the Global Times.

The intervention came a month after China banned banks and payment companies from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions.

The market is also coming under growing scrutiny from other regulators around the world.

Authorities have cited concern over the environmental impact of crypto mining, its potential to facilitate illegal activity, and the market’s volatility. But critics say their real fear involves the threat to the existing banking system.

TRX Q3 2019: Justin Sun’s canceled Warren Buffett lunch did its price no favors

Budding network TRON (TRX) pitches itself as Ethereum‘s rival, with its smart contracts, dapps, and soon-to-be developed decentralized finance (DeFi) products.

That’s where the similarities between the two projects cease. TRX doesn’t have any miners, as it doesn’t leverage Proof-of-Work . Instead, TRX is powered by a relatively centralized consensus algorithm that consists of just 27 validators, referred to as “ Super Representatives .”

In this sense, it’s really akin to niche ‘blockchain’ EOS , as participants literally delegate responsibility to a small group of trusted third parties to maintain the network. Just like EOS, most TRX activity relates to gambling .

Still, TRX has etched a foothold in the market. It’s ranked 11th on CoinMarketCap’s list of top crypto-assets , with a market capitalization currently worth just under $1.3 million.

TRX/USD 2019 Q2 performance recap

The frustrating reality of cryptocurrency markets is that the strength of Bitcoin‘s price often dictates the performance of less popular crypto-assets like TRX.

In Q2 2019, Bitcoin enjoyed positive price action. This, as usual, led speculators to dip into other markets (like TRX) as a way to compound potential gains.

So, just like Ripple (XRP), TRX followed Bitcoin and opened the quarter strong, with a sharp increase from just over $0.025 to around $0.031.

After finding support (which came in at $0.0225), TRX spent most of May in the green, and briefly spiked to clear $0.04 per token leading into June.

Following an attempt to regain those $0.04 highs, TRX would eventually close Q2 2019 at just over $0.0325.

TRX/USD 2019 Q3 review

Again, like other altcoin markets, TRX got punished in this year’s third quarter, despite the apparent health shown at the end of June.

Sadly, traders would have found it difficult to earn profit from swing-trading (or flat-out investing) in TRX at any point last quarter.

Aside from a tiny bounce off $0.02, TRX was pretty well permanently in the red from July to October.

Things began to look up for TRX at the very end of last quarter. The final significant red candle appeared in the last week of September, which featured a wick that stretched down to reach almost $0.01 from $0.016.

Biggest news for TRX in Q3 2019

TRON headlines last quarter sent readers on a veritable rollercoaster, which started when incorrect reports surfaced indicating that police had raided the company’s Beijing headquarters in early July.

The real story is that a mob of disgruntled investors had attempted to storm the project‘s offices, angry that they had lost money in a reportedly unrelated scam .

According to TRON , the group had been spurned by fraudsters who had solicited investments using a “Chinese version” of the blockchain’s software.

A few weeks after that blew over, Justin Sun’s penchant for publicity caught up with him when he was forced to call himself a “ big mouthed over-marketer ” following the “postponement” of a prestigious lunch with famed investor Warren Buffet, which Sun had paid $4.6 million to secure a month earlier.

Sun had supposedly been forced to cancel on Buffett due to health issues, specifically kidney stones. Just days later, Sun was spotted in San Francisco at an influencer-centric party hosted by TRON, which raised eyebrows.

Looking ahead

With Bitcoin enjoying a healthy run at October’s open, TRX has had a little breathing room to make some respectable gains.

Third quarter trade started at roughly $0.0135, with the market attempting to pierce $0.0175 heading into the second week.

After bouncing off support (which appeared at around $0.014), the price of TRX rose through the last week of October to temporarily hit $0.0225.

It’s now sitting at around $0.0188, but presumably, traders are waiting to see how Bitcoin moves in the coming week before running wild with their chosen altcoins.

How to easily set up a wallet for cryptocurrency and NFTs with MetaMask

Welcome to TNW Basics , a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff.

If you want to experience a metaverse, buy NFTs, or trade in cryptocurrency , it’s essential to have a wallet that’s easy to create and use.

MetaMask is a pretty popular choice these days. It’s free to use, and is available as a desktop browser extension and a mobile app. You can sign up to create a wallet to store your digital assets in just a few seconds, and it will also let you connect like the OpenSea NFT marketplace in a blink. Think of it as a single sign-in function — just like sign-in with Google, Apple, or Facebook.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind. Unlike the traditional combination of a username and password to log into your account, MetaMask relies on a twelve-word secret recovery phrase. So it’s important to remember this phrase or store it in a secure place.

MetaMask is a non-custodial wallet , so it doesn’t keep the private keys to your wallet. That means if you forget your secret recovery phrase, you’ll likely lose access to your account.

Here’s how you can get started:

Go to MetaMask’s website and choose the extension for your browser. Currently, the service supports Chrome, Firefox, Microsft Edge, and Brave.

Once you’ve downloaded the extension, click on Get Started.

Since you don’t have an account, click on Create a Wallet.

Now, MetaMask will first ask you to enter a password. This is just to protect the client installed on the browser.

Next, it’ll reveal your 12-word secret recovery phrase, and let you store it somewhere else.

You’ll have to rearrange it in the exact order on the next screen to show you’ve stored it in a secure place.

Voilà , now your new MetaMask account and a default Etherum wallet address have been created . This is where you can now store cryptocurrency from Ethereum-based blockchains (like Ether aka ETH), as well as NFTs of digital artworks and other assets. If you have assets stored in other wallets, you can transfer those tokens to this new address.

You can also download MetaMask’s Android or iOS app . You can recover your wallet in these apps using your secret phrase.

Notably, you can have a different password for your mobile app, but your wallet address and the secret phrase will remain the same. To ensure that you don’t forget this phrase, you should store it in a password manager like 1Password or LastPass .

There are a lot of discussions around the disadvantages of MetaMask, such as support for limited support for various tokens and security risks . However, if you’re getting started with your web3 exploration journey, it’s one of the easiest wallets to set up and connect to different services.