- Bitcoin slumped as much as 9% on Wednesday - hitting its lowest level since June - ahead of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimonial on the company's proposed cryptocurrency, Libra.
- Zuckerberg is due to answer questions from a House Financial Services Committee about Facebook's ambitions in financial services.
- Other cryptocurrencies also slipped, with Ethereum falling 10% at its lows.
- Watch Bitcoin trade live here.
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Bitcoin slipped to its lowest level since June on Wednesday as Mark Zuckerberg began his planned testimonial in front of the House Financial Services Committee. The Facebook CEO will discuss the company's planned cryptocurrency, Libra.
The world's largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 9% to $7,418 in New York.
Lawmakers and critics have expressed concern about Facebook's involvement in the financial system for a number of reasons:
- The blunders it has made when handling the personal data of its social network's members in the past
- Its sheer size and scale, which lawmakers worry could enable Libra to grow too quickly to properly manage
- The potential risk for the system being used by criminals or to finance terrorism
Zuckerberg is expected to be asked about these items during his testimony.
"The main reason for this is because of the immense pressure Facebook's Libra is getting from Washington," Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co told Bloomberg. "That is basically making it much less likely that Bitcoin will go mainstream as quickly as some of its bulls think it will."
Several early partners for Libra have already dropped out of the project including major players like Visa and Mastercard, and eBay, after major scrutiny of the project from US lawmakers.
Other cryptocurrencies also felt the heat of Zuckerberg's testimonial as Ethereum fell as much as 10%.
You can watch the live stream of Zuckerberg's testimonial before the House committee here.
