Investing.com - Bitcoin prices slumped on Wednesday in Asia on reports of a wave of fake Libra accounts on major social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).

Bitcoin last traded at $9,610.3 by 12:28 AM ET (04:28 GMT), down 7.5%.

Ethereum fell 6.2% to $203.53, while XRP was down 4.4% to 0.30522. Litecoin also fell 6.6% to $88.338.

The fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram were posing as official entities for Libra, a not-yet-launched cryptocurrency proposed by Facebook that has been under the spotlight the past couple months.

Some of the fake ads offered participation in a pre-sale of Libra at a discount, according to the Washington Post.

Such fake ads could undermine trust in Facebook and Libra, which were already under heavy scrutiny in many jurisdictions around the world, said Eswar Prasad, an economic professor at Cornell University in a report.

“Facebook has an enormous worldwide network and enormous financial muscle . . . But the only way Libra will work well as a medium of exchange is if everyone can trust it. And that's the big question right now: whether there is going to be enough trust in Facebook."

G-7 finance ministers warned last week that Libra could potentially upset the world’s financial system if it is not regulated tightly.

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

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