Bitcoin saw its price dive below $16,000 late Wednesday as a major sell-off in the crypto market intensified after Binance backed out of a potential deal to buy its rival FTX, which is in financial turmoil.

“As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of http://FTX.com,” Binance announced via Twitter.

“Every time a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers will suffer. We have seen over the last several years that the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient and we believe in time that outliers that misuse user funds will be weeded out by the free market,” it added.

Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, said Tuesday it intended to buy FTX, while co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao stressed that the world's third largest crypto platform has “a significant liquidity crunch.”

With the deal scrapped and crypto users' fears amid uncertainty, the price of Bitcoin plummeted to $15,588 around 6.00 p.m. EDT -- its lowest since Nov. 12, 2020, according to official figures. It was around $16,170 at 9.50 p.m. EDT for an 11.3% loss.

Ethereum, the world’s biggest altcoin, was trading around $1,140 at the time for a 12.5% daily decline.

The total value of the cryptocurrency market was down 10.3% to $812 billion during that time, according to data from digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.

Some altcoins saw their price plummet as much as 40% in the past 24 hours.

FTT, FTX's token, saw its price dive more than 90% in the past week to less than $2.40, while it saw a high of $65 during the past year. (Anadolu Agency)

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