Cryptocurrencies saw precipitous drops Wednesday, with Bitcoin falling to its lowest level since May.
The nosedives came as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to discuss his plans for the new cryptocurrency Libra. Among the things he said to Congress was “I actually don’t know if Libra is going to work,” which might have jarred traders.
The declines started a little after 8:30 a.m. ET. Over the course of 20 minutes, Bitcoin lost more than 6% of its value, with more than $205 million in liquidations on BitMEX.
In midday trading, Bitcoin was down 9% to $7,489, according to CoinMarketCap. That’s a number the cryptocurrency hasn’t seen since May.
While Zuckerberg’s testimony may or may not have prompted today’s sell-off, it underscores the growing governmental interest in cryptocurrencies, which could also be a factor in investors cashing out.
Other major cryptos were down sharply as well Wednesday. Ethereum was off 8.75% at 12:30 p.m. ET. XRP dropped 10.5%. And Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and EOS were all more than 10% lower.
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