Bitcoin (BTC) has been on a tearing run for much of 2019 after making a remarkable turnaround from its low of last year. However, the past few days have not been particularly great for the cryptocurrency as the price fluctuated quite wildly at the start of the week. Although Bitcoin did recover, the price slumped on Friday yet again as Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency has reportedly run into trouble with the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services.

According to reports, the committee has apparently asked Facebook to refrain from developing Libra, its cryptocurrency, and once the news hit the wires, Bitcoin’s price started tumbling.

Key Concerns

The committee has raised concerns that the usage and prevalence of Libra could eventually lead to a monetary system that could end up competing with the one in the United States. Additionally, it would undermine the importance of the dollar, and that is clearly not in the best interest of the country, as most of the global trade is done in dollars. One of the reports even quoted one of the committee members and their fears about Libra. A member said, “This raises serious privacy, trading, national security, and monetary policy concerns for not only Facebook’s over 2 billion users, but also for investors, consumers, and the broader global economy.”

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading lower by 7% at just above $11k mark.

Blow to Crypto Markets

At a time when cryptocurrencies are looking for regulatory clarity, this has come as a heavy blow for most of those. In addition to Bitcoin, other leading cryptos experienced slumps as well. Ethereum (ETH), the cryptocurrency with the 2^nd biggest market capitalization after Bitcoin, slumped by 3.8% to hit $285.94 at one point. The third biggest crypto, XRP, went down by as much as 4.4% at one point to slump to $0.383. It is quite clear that it has not been a particularly good day for cryptos, and considering the fact that Facebook has been asked to not produce its crypto, it has created a bit of panic in the crypto sphere today.

>> Litecoin (LTC) Outperforms Bitcoin Ahead of Blockchain Halving

On the regulatory front, the situation was further compounded by the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom when it said crypto derivatives like futures and options should not be made available to retail investors since they are extremely volatile. This is the sort of situation that cryptocurrencies have experienced for many years, and this is not the first time this has happened. However, the backlash against Facebook’s Libra is a new frontier.

Bitcoin is still up 265% from its last year’s low of $3,200.