Bitcoin falls by over 14% this morning below $50,000 as cryptocurrency prices take a sharp nosedive.
Bitcoin at the time of writing is down $8,102 to $46,817 (-14.75%) with Ethereum down $337.30 (-18.59%) and XRP down $0.133 (-23.41%).
The fall of Bitcoin was preceded by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling Bitcoin “inefficient” in an interview on Monday. Yellen said that they would be keeping a close eye on Bitcoin, with possible regulations in the works.
Elon Musk, CEO at Tesla, noted on Twitter that both Bitcoin and Ethereum seemed high. Tesla sees a loss this morning, down $66.80 to $714.50 (-8.55%) following the news.
Bitcoin has had a record-breaking year, climbing by 300% in 2020 and just recently breaking the $50,000 milestone last week. The success of Bitcoin has been in part due to massive buys from Tesla and banking institutions like MasterCard showing interest in trading with the currency.