A selloff in cryptocurrencies widened on Tuesday, with bitcoin weakening nearly 4% while smaller rival ether fell more than 6%.

The world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency weakened 4% to $50,516, having risen to a mid-May high above $52,000 earlier, in Asian trading.

Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, fell more than 6% to $3,666.

According to one report, China ordered a shutdown of Bitcoin mining in its Sichuan province and has ordered banks to stop supporting crypto transactions.

(Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; editing by Sujata Rao)