BITCOIN -RIVALS- PLUNGE

LONDON: Bitcoin tumbled 18 percent on Tuesday to a four week trough close to $11,000, after reports that a ban on trading of  ''cryptocurrencies'' on South Korea was still an option drove fears grew of a wider regulatory crackdown

Bitcoin's slide triggered a massive selloff across the broader cyptocurrency market, with biggest rival  Ethereum down 23 percent on the day, according to a website Coinmarketcap, and the next biggest, Ripple, plunging 33 percent.

South Korean news website Yonhap reported that Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon had told a local radio station that the government would be coming up with a set of measures to clampdown  on the  ''irrational'' cyptocurrency investment craze.

South Korea had said on Monday that its plans to ban virtual coin exchanges had not been finalized, as government agencies were still in talks to decide how to regulate the Bitcoin.

Bitcoin slid on the latest news, trading as low as $11, 191.59 on the Luxembourg-based Bitcoin exchange. down 18 percent on the day, for a short period putting the digital currency on track for its biggest one-day fall in three years.

''It's mainly been regulatory issues which are haunting the cryptocurrency, with news around South Korea's further crackdown on trading the driver today,'' said Think Markets chief strategist Naeem Aslam-

Who holds what he described as ''substantial''  amounts of bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.

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