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Bitcoin Slumps Below $7,500 as Drop From Recent Peak Tops 20%

Bitcoin falls below $8,000 for first time since mid-April.

Bitcoin Slumps Below $7,500 as Drop From Recent Peak Tops 20%
A token representing Bitcoin virtual currency sits among cables and LED lighting inside a ‘mining rig’ computer in Budapest, Hungary. (Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin fell to a six-week low, as selloff that began in early May dropped the cryptocurrency’s price below $7,500 for the first time since mid-April.

Bitcoin slumped 7.3 percent to $7,495 as of 1:57 p.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. It’s now down more than 20 percent since a May 4 peak.

Bitcoin Slumps Below $7,500 as Drop From Recent Peak Tops 20%

Wednesday’s decline came after OKEx, the most active fee-charging exchange over the past day, suspended withdrawals and fiat trading to fix an error that was leading to inaccurate account balances, according to a statement on its website.

The latest hiccup come as the world’s most valuable digital coin is mired in a slump amid growing regulatory scrutiny even after last week’s Consensus confab put the community’s optimism and excess in full display.

The declines on Wednesday also coincided with a selloff in financial markets, with stocks and commodities falling on fading optimism over the U.S.’s talks with North Korea and China. Ethereum was also down 5 percent on Wednesday, while Bitcoin Cash fell 9 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justina Lee in London at jlee1489@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Randall Jensen

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.