Bitcoin Tumbles Further After Yellen's Warning Comment

Bitcoin came crumbling on Tuesday, giving away last week's gains after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen issued an acute warning about the efficiency of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin fell as low as 16 percent to $44,893 (N20,875,245) on Tuesday and was trading below $47,000, just after a brief recovery from Monday's losses; Ether crashed over 21 percent all the way to $1,378 (N640, 770) and was trading below $1,500, according to data from coinmarketcap.com.

READ MORE: Ethereum Crashes To $700 On Kraken

In an interview with New York Times' Dealbook on Monday, she stated that “It’s an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions, and the amount of energy that’s consumed in processing those transactions is staggering,”

Bitcoin and Ethereum had an energetic run last week, reaching new records of over $58,000 and $2,000 respectively

Although this is not her first time criticizing the digital asset, as she has said it is often used for illegal transactions, it seems this was far more impactful.

It is worthy of note, however, that Yellen also said digital currencies were likely here to stay and that a “digital dollar” could serve as an easier payment system for many Americans who don’t have that access.

Elon Musk made a comment about the prices of bitcoin and ethereum, the leading cryptocurrencies, that they "seemed high" over the weekend, which made a lot of people blame him for Monday's heavy dip.

JP Morgan also warned over the weekend about bitcoin's falling market liquidity, which could lead to a decline in its price.