Bitcoin loses $130.78b in 1 day as US probes Binance

Bitcoin has nosedived with a 2-1/2-month low on Thursday after a regulatory probe into crypto exchange Binance added to pressure from Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) chief Elon Musk’s reversing his stance on accepting the digital currency.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that as part of the Binance inquiry, the U.S. Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service have sought information from individuals with insight into its business.

Bitcoin dropped to $45,700, the lowest since March 1, then steadied at $49,312 in Asia morning trade on Friday.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell 17% on Wednesday following Musk’s remarks that Tesla would stop accepting the digital token as payment for its electric cars for environmental reasons.

Bitcoin is estimated to average around 700 kilowatt-hours (KWh) per transaction, while doge is estimated to use about 0.12 KWh per transaction.

According to coinmarketcap.com, bitcoin was $48,063.02 on Thursday. It had a 24-hour trading volume of $102,816,494,815. Bitcoin was down 11.05 per cent.

It had live market cap of $899,221,459,712, a circulating supply of 18,709,218 BTC coins, and its maximum supply was 21,000,000 BTC coins.

Ethereum price was $3,599.38. It had a 24-hour trading volume of $84,922,177,574. Ethereum was down 9.98 per cent. It had a live market cap of $417,023,763,037. It had a circulating supply of 115,859,799 ETH coins, and its maximum supply was not available.

Dogecoin was $0.378770. It had a 24-hour trading volume of $13,771,969,017. Dogecoin was down 14.56 per cent. It had a live market cap of $49,082,167,908, a circulating supply of 129,582,999,369 DOGE coins, and its maximum supply was not available.