Bitcoin slid as much as 14 percent on Tuesday to hit a four-week low below $12,000, as fears grew of a regulatory crackdown after reports that South Korea’s finance minister had said banning trading in cryptocurrencies was still an option, reported Reuters. 

South Korean news website Yonhap reported that Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon had told a local radio station that the government would be coming up with a set of measures to clamp down on the “irrational” cryptocurrency investment craze.

Bitcoin slid on the news, trading as low as $11,730 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, down 13.6 percent on the day.

The latest tumble leaves bitcoin more than 40 percent down from the record highs of around $20,000 reached in mid-December, wiping about $125 billion from its “market cap” - the price of bitcoin multiplied by the total number of bitcoins that have been “mined”, or released into the market.

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