Bitcoin Prices Fall; North Korea Reportedly Developing Own Cryptocurrency

© Reuters.

Investing.com – Bitcoin prices fell on Thursday in Asia. Reports on Thursday suggested that North Korea is in the early stages of developing a cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was down 4.1% to $9,823.1, Ethereum lost 4.2% to $204.25, XRP dropped 5.6% to 0.29010, while Litecoin declined 3.7% to $73.229.

Citing Alejandro Cao de Benos, an official in charge of North Korea’s crypto conferences, Vice News reported on Thursday that the yet-to-be-named digital currency will be “more like Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.”

“We are still in the very early stages in the creation of the token. Now we are in the phase of studying the goods that will give value to it […] No plans to digitize the [North Korean] won for now,” he added.

In other news, Reuters reported that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) reportedly met with the British finance ministry, regulatory officials and the Bank of England (BOE) before making the announcement to launch its digital currency, Libra, in June.

Reuters said the head of BOE and other financial British regulators warned that Libra would face high regulatory hurdles.

According to the meeting schedules released by the Finance Ministry cited by Reuters, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) met a junior minister and officials in charge of cryptocurrency policy at Britain’s Finance Ministry on April 23. A day later, it met the Financial Conduct Authority to discuss Libra.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) also met with officials from the BOE in May.

“Engaging with regulators, policymakers, and experts is critical to Libra’s success,” a Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) spokeswoman said. “This was the whole reason that Facebook along with other members of the Libra Association shared our plans early.”