Investing.com – Cryptocurrency prices fell on Tuesday, with Ethereum and Ripple down more than 8%. Reports that Bank of England is considering a bank-run cryptocurrency garnered some attention.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,123.6 by 12:05AM ET (04:05GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, down 3.9% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, plunged 8.8% at $524.8 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token fell 8.8% higher to $0.55654 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin slumped 5.4% to $112.27.
Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said on Monday that he would consider a digital currency run by the central bank, according to reports, although Carney then added it is not currently a pressing concern.
His comments contradicted with Bank of England’s announcement earlier this year, in which the bank said it would not issue a central bank-run crypto. The bank expressed concern at the time that the introduction of a bank controlled virtual coin might lead to a loss of the ability to use its interest rate policy to maintain financial stability.
Carney argued that there are upsides in utilising blockchain technology for central banking. He said it brings financial stability and could potentially save computational energy output.
Elsewhere, China prosecuted 98 people and recoverd US$268 million in connection with a suspected cryptocurrency pyramid scheme involving OneCoin, a Ponzi scheme promoted as a cryptocoin with a private blockchain, a state-owned newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The OneCoin scheme involved 20 provinces in China and has been under investigation since 2016, reports said.