Investing.com - Bitcoin prices slumped again on Friday in Asia after U.S. President Donald Trump warned against the Libra digital currency project led by Facebook.
Bitcoin fell 5.9% to $11,250.2 by 11:37 AM ET (03:37 GMT).
“Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Libra’s ‘virtual currency’ will have little standing or dependability. If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks,” Trump said in a series of posts on Twitter.
The president also attacked other cryptocurrencies.
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump wrote. “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
His comments came one day after U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the proposed coin “raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability.”
“There isn’t any one agency that can stand up and have oversight over this,” Powell added. “The privacy rules that we apply to banks, we have no authority to apply them to Facebook or to Libra.”
Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters also warned that Facebook is trying “to establish a parallel banking and monetary policy system” that would rival the U.S. dollar.
Ethereum was down 5.1% to $269.50, while XRP plunged 7% to $0.32731.
Litecoin fell 1.5% to $103.74.