Bitcoin recovers but still hovers below $10,000

Bitcoin prices recovered on Thursday in Asia but is still trading below the $10,000 level.

Bitcoin last traded at $9,800.5 by 12:23 AM ET (04:23 GMT), up 4.1%.

Ethereum jumped 7.7% to $214.33, XRP gained 4.8% to 0.31278 while Litecoin surged 11.2% to 89.128.

The rebound came after some heavy selling in the past week after global central banks warned against Facebook’s plan to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra.

Several lawmakers on Wednesday called on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to halt its development until Congress and regulators had the opportunity to assess concerns around the social media company’s cryptocurrency.

The lawmakers described the company’s proposal as a toddler playing matches who burns the house down and criticised the company for repeatedly violating consumers’ privacy. During the hearing, a U.S. senator said the social media giant was “delusional” to believe people will trust it with their money.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also joined critics on Libra and expressed serious concerns about the proposal earlier this month.

In other news, Reuters reported on Thursday that Japan is leading a global development to set up an international network for cryptocurrency payments.

Citing a person familiar with the plan, the report said the network is expected to be in place in the next few years, although the article did not explain how the network would work.