Investing.com – Bitcoin reversed course Wednesday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned of "significant" investor risks of owning the popular crypto.
Bitcoin fell 0.71% to $7,316.5 on the Bitfinex exchange, after trading as highs as $7,588.0.
Addressing several questions about bitcoin and the wider crypto market, Fed chairman Jay Powell warned that bitcoin posed risks as it lacked intrinsic value.
Powell said "bitcoin is not really a currency," and warned it poses "significant" investor risks as it doesn’t have any intrinsic value.
The slowdown in the bitcoin rally, however, failed to dent investor optimism as the market appeared well supported, holding most of the inflows seen Tuesday, when bitcoin rallied more 10% to rise above $7,000.
The total market cap of cryptocurrencies fell to about $288 billion, at the time of writing, from about $293 billion Tuesday.
Ripple XRP fell 6.44% to $0.48286 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum fell 6.24% to $472.51.
Bitcoin Cash fell 4.70% to $814.85, while Litecoin fell 2.49% to $87.68.