Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies continued to fall on Wednesday, after Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced it is banning ads for virtual currencies and related products.
Bitcoin was trading at of $8,372.10, falling 4.65% as of 8:19 AM ET (12:19 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will join technology giants Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) in banning advertisements of cryptocurrencies on its search engine, Bing. Digital coins are a risk to users because they are not regulated, the company said in a press release.
“To help protect our users from this risk, we have made the decision to disallow advertising,” said Melissa Alsoszatai-Petheo, advertiser policy manager. The ban is expected to take effect in June.
While Facebook has opted to ban advertisements of digital coins, the social media site announced last week that it plans to develop its own cryptocurrency. David Marcus, who heads Facebook's Messanger app, will oversee a new unit looking into how the company can leverage blockchain technology.
Meanwhile on the regulation front, Ukraine is preparing legislation to legalize virtual currencies. The draft, which was posted on Facebook by Ukrainian parliament member Alexi Mushak, aims to create a “free and transparent” cryptocurrency market in Ukraine and includes measures to prevent its use for money laundering and other criminal activities.
Earlier in May the Ukrainian National Securities and Stock Market Commission said it would consider recognizing virtual coins as a financial instrument.
Other digital coins were also lower, with Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, falling 3.69% to $705.10 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, was down 6.38% to $0.69292 while Litecoin was at $139.31, a decrease of 10.73%.