Bitcoin's volatile week-long slide saw it tumble to below $40,000 mark as news of further restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions in China added to earlier concerns sparked by Elon Musk's tweets
Also weighing on digital coins was a new Chinese ban on financial institutions providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions
Musk has boosted crypto markets with his enthusiasm for the asset class, but has lately roiled trade by appearing to cool on bitcoin in favour of its one-time parody, dogecoin
Tesla's biggest decline since September was fueled in part by Musk's comments over the weekend that the prices of Bitcoin and smaller rival Ether 'do seem high'
Bitcoin plunged as much as 17 per cent and briefly back below $50,000 in New York
The most popular cryptocurrency rallied over the weekend to record levels, almost doubling year-to-date. It hit a market capitalisation of $1 trillion on Friday
The cryptocurrency saw its sharpest fall since September last year
The world's most popular cryptocurrency continued to retreat from the $42,000 record high hit on January 8
Cryptocurrencies plunged on Monday, with bitcoin dropping more than 12% to a one-week low as rising US yields lifted the dollar broadly and hurt non-income paying assets
The rout began just hours after Bitcoin rose to within $7 of its record high of $19,511, the culmination of a more than 250% surge in past nine months
Monday's "halving" cuts the rewards given to those who "mine" bitcoin to 6.25 new coins from 12.5. The next halving will be in 2024.
Politicians and financial regulators across the world have called for scrutiny of Facebook's Libra coin, with concerns ranging from consumer protection and privacy to its potential systemic risks
Bitcoin tumbled as much as 9.8 per cent and was trading at $6,358 as of 11:54 a.m. in London