Getty • Twitter @leskofreemoney Matthew Lesko is best known for advertisements in the 90s

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Matthew Lesko, best known for advertisements in the 90s that promoted his books declaring that US citizens were eligible for free money from the government, issued Bitcoin investors with caution as prices continue to fall. He stated: “There's no regulation like in a dollar bill, it's not backed by anything that you can get the money back if someone screws you over. That's the other thing -- if there's no regulation, you get screwed, you get screwed. “Bitcoin right now is a gamble. I don't see how that improves anybody's life, gambling. “If you're not an expert, this is a hell of a time to get involved in it. You're playing with sharks right now. This is the beginning of something, and no one knows where it's going.

“If you have money to lose, OK, go ahead. But if you don't have money to lose, just stay away from stuff like this. These people who are running it, and hoping the market goes up, think about this 24/7 and they've been at it for months and months and months.” Mr Lesko added that the cryptocurrency bubble is sucking in people that do not necessarily have the money to afford such lavish investments. He declared that people looking to get into virtual coins are extremely susceptible to those who have spent countless hours preparing a pitch for why investing is a good idea. He went on: “The bad part of it (cryptocurrencies) is that it's playing on people who can't really afford it.

Cryptocurrency price: A year in charts Mon, March 12, 2018 Compare crypto currencies (Ripple, Bitcoin, Ethereum, LiteCoin) on value, market cap and supply for the past year Play slideshow coindesk.com 1 of 10 LiteCoin is going down with the market dip

“I don't mind the hype for people who can afford it. It's the hype for people who can't afford it, and they hurt themselves by getting involved in this, instead of selling something more real, developing a skill that can contribute to society. “We're so good at selling in this country. This is our talent. It's not making s***, it's selling s***. “We can sell anything, and that's the problem. You become so good at selling, it doesn't matter what the hell you're selling. “How do you guard against that? The average person is not equipped to deal with somebody who spends 24 hours a day thinking of every answer to a question you have.

Getty The current value of Bitcoin at the time of writing is $9,594 (£6,867.86)

Getty Cryptocurrencies have seen their values in free fall over the past week