Mubasher: Digital currencies suffered sharp losses on Wednesday amid fears of escalated restrictions by governments across the world.

Bitcoin fell dramatically below $10,000 for the first time since early December, down from its peak of $19,800 seen five weeks ago.

By 02:46 pm GMT, bitcoin plunged 20.02% to $9,620.09 with a market capitalisation of around $161.7 billion.

Meanwhile, ethereum dropped sharply by 27.37% to $808.10, and ripple dipped 32.72% to $0.93.

Total market cap for all cryptocurrencies last reached $429.6 billion.

The Chinese central bank's vice governor Pan Gongsheng previously said that the government would tighten its ban on digital currencies trading and prevent its negative effect on the market.