The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that bitcoin had its worst week since November as an equity sell-off, fear over higher interest rates and an escalating U.S. regulatory crackdown on crypto combine to hurt investor sentiment. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that the token fell as much 3.2 per cent on Friday, breaking below $20,000 (U.S.), after falling more than 8 per cent on Thursday. Smaller coins like ether, solana and cardano also added to losses. A rout in U.S. bank stocks on Thursday stoked concerns that rising borrowing costs are creating a treacherous economic and investing outlook. In New York, the state regulator sued Kucoin, a popular crypto exchange, and in the process claimed in court that second-largest token Ether is a security. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also contends that many cryptocoins are securities, a designation that would potentially make them harder to trade. "The sell-off in cryptocurrencies appears to be largely equity-market led," said John Toro at digital-asset exchange Independent Reserve. Bitcoin has shed about 13 per cent last week, the most since a 23-per-cent weekly tumble in November amid the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX platform.