Bitcoin crashes below $10,000

The world's most valuable cryptocurrency, bitcoin, has lost over half its value since it smashed the $20,000 barrier in mid-December. The price of the cryptocurrency dropped to $9,555 at 15:00 GMT on Wednesday.

"The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a serious attack from speculators," Gleb Zadoya, head of analytics at Analitika Online said in email comments to RT.

"The reason for the sell-off are reports on the strengthening of regulation by the Chinese and South Korean authorities. After that, the exchange rate of many cryptocurrencies fell below important psychological levels."

On Tuesday, an official from the People's Bank of China said the country's centralized virtual currency trade needs to end, Reuters reported.

National and local authorities should ban venues that provide centralized trading of virtual currencies, including the...