Bitcoin is under pressure as the crypto selloff continues in Asia

Prices have risen slightly from a low of less than $US9,800, while a short time ago the Ripple XRP token was trading at around $US1.07 — down from a high of $3.315 on January 4th.

Earlier this morning, Facebook announced that it would ban all ads for bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and initial coin offerings (ICOs).

And overnight, the US Securities & Exchange Commission shut down a $US600 million ICO in Texas, alleging it was a scam.

As cryptocurrency markets become subject to further regulatory scrutiny, reports emerged overnight that the US-based crytocurrency exchange Bitfinex has been issued with a subpoena by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on behalf of US law enforcement.

Bitfinex is closely tied to the Tether USDT token, which is supposedly pegged to the US dollar.

For now, the Tether USDT token appears to be holding its USD-equivalent value, based on data from the website coinmarketcap.com.

However, concerns around Tether’s practices — specifically, whether USDT tokens have been artificially created out of thin air and used to push up Bitcoin’s price — were exacerbated this week amid news that the company had recently split with its auditors.