The price of bitcoin yo-yoed wildly again on Tuesday, falling 14% to $5,920 (£4,250) before bouncing back to $7,265 – up nearly 6% on the previous day. The latest gyrations came as a leading central banker described the cryptocurrency as “a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster”.

The new head of the Bank for International Settlements, Agustín Carstens, also said bitcoin threatened to undermine public trust in central banks and posed a threat to financial stability, and he signalled a global clampdown.

“If authorities do not act pre-emptively, cryptocurrencies could become more interconnected with the main financial system and become a threat to financial stability,” he said, speaking at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

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