Bitcoin steadied after its biggest drop since June as investors and speculators reappraised the outlook for initial coin offerings.

The cryptocurrency pared a decline of as much as 6 per cent on Tuesday and was at US$4,390 as of 9:39 am. in London. It’s still up more than 50 per cent since the end of July.

China’s central bank on Monday said initial coin offerings are illegal and asked all related fundraising activity to be halted immediately, issuing the strongest regulatory challenge so far to the burgeoning market for digital token sales.

• Bitcoin skidded 11 per cent on Monday.
• Ethereum, another cryptocurrency, fell 6.2 percent over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk prices.