(Reuters) - A pullback in prices of bitcoin deepened on Thursday, falling over 16% to below $11,000 (£8,682) after jumping to 18-month high of nearly $14,000 earlier this week amid optimism about the widening usage of digital currencies.
The world's biggest cryptocurrency has surged in value since April and has risen more than 260%, but it remains below its all-time high of nearly $20,000 hit in December 2017.
At 1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT), bitcoin was down 16.13% at $10,836.42 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.
Facebook's announcement that it would offer its own cryptocurrency Libra has revived interest in digital currencies, analysts said.
Investors seeking an alternative asset to gold and U.S. bonds as a safe haven due to worries about weakening global growth also helped contribute to bitcoin's rally, they said.
(Reporting by Richard Leong in New York and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes in London, editing by G Crosse)
