Topic: [2017-09-13] Bitcoin has tanked 11.5% since Jamie Dimon called it 'a fraud' (Read 2019 times)

Bitcoin continues to slide Wednesday as uncertainty and criticism mount against the red-hot cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency was down over 9% on Wednesday morning, at $3,767 a coin, 11 days after crossing the much-anticipated $5,000 threshold.

Bitcoin has fallen more than 11% since Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, bashed the cryptocurrency on Tuesday at the Barclays Financial Services Conference, calling it "a fraud" that would eventually blow up.

The 61-year-old banker and longtime critic of bitcoin also called it "a terrible store of value" in a 2014 interview with CNBC.

John Spallanzani, the chief macro strategist at GFI Group, told Business Insider that Dimon's remarks weren't the only reason bitcoin was under pressure on Wednesday.

 "The negative news cycle continues, the UK financial regulator FCA has sounded the alarm over initial coin offerings, and the China crackdown," he said in an email.

On Tuesday, the UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, warned investors about the risk associated with initial coin offerings, the cryptocurrency-based fundraising method. Over $2.1 billion has been raised via the method since the beginning of the year, according to Autonomous Next, the financial-technology analytics provider. Some companies have raised millions of dollars in a matter of hours without having an actual product.

Here's the FCA (emphasis ours):

"ICOs are very high-risk, speculative investments. You should be conscious of the risks involved ... and fully research the specific project if you are thinking about buying digital tokens. You should only invest in an ICO project if you are an experienced investor, confident in the quality of the ICO project itself (e.g., business plan, technology, people involved) and prepared to lose your entire stake."

Earlier this month, China banned ICOs, and more recently, rumors that it might ban cryptocurrency trading altogether have escalated — a Caixin report out Friday suggested that China would shut down its domestic exchanges.

Two of China's largest bitcoin exchanges, OKCoin and Huobi, say they haven't received any notice from regulators, according to a tweet from Bloomberg's Lulu Yilun Chen.

In February, China blocked traders from withdrawing their bitcoin. They were allowed to resume withdrawals in June.

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-after-dimon-calls-it-a-fraud-2017-9