Cryptocurrency prices were mixed on Wednesday

Investing.com – Cryptocurrency prices were mixed on Wednesday. Reports that Chinese polices confiscated computers used to mine Bitcoin gathered some focus. Meanwhile, PayPal’s former CEO Bill Harries called Bitcoin a scam.

was trading at $9,325.9 by 1:21AM ET (05:21 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 0.50% over the previous 24 hours.

, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, shed 4.15% at $654.11 on the Bitfinex exchange.

token dropped 9.17% to $0.84851 on the Poloniex exchange.

Meanwhile, slipped 5.67% to $153.97.

Police in the Chinese city Tianjin reportedly that were used to mine Bitcoin after receiving reports of abnormal electricty usage. The police put five people under investigation and detained one person.

The news came as Beijing started a hostile approach to cryptocurrency miners. Before that, China was home to the majority of crytopcurrency mining operations.

Miners use high-powered machines to generate the massive computing power to produce cryptocurrencies. Police in Tianjin called the case the largest power theft in recent years.

Elsewhere, reports that founding PayPal CEO and former Intuit CEO Bill Harris called Bitcoin a scam also attracted attention.

“It’s a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen... the losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters,” said Harris.

Harris also called for regulators to step in. Despite Harris’ criticism, Bitcoin kept rising in recent days, breaking the $9,000 mark.