Investing.com - Bitcoin prices rose on Wednesday and hovered above $7,000 as Morgan Creek Capital announced the launch of the Digital Asset Index Fund.
Bitcoin rose 1.97% to $7,034.9 at 12:30AM ET (04:30 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum gained 3.34% to $293.75 on the Bitifinex exchange.
XRP went up 3.01% to a trading price of 0.3477 in the last 24 hours on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin grew 3.06% to $62.65 on the Bitifinex exchange.
The Digital Asset Index Fund, which allows investors to access a basket of digital currencies, has a $50,000 minimum investment, according to reports.
Mark Yusko, the chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, told CNBC on Tuesday that Bitcoin’s recent slump has offered institutional investors “a more rational way to evaluate cryptocurrencies.” Yusko added that he remained bullish on the digital coin, and that he believed the digital currency is could reach $500,000 in the coming years.
In other news, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NAASA) said on Tuesday that it expanded investigations into initial coin offerings (ICO), as earlier reports revealed that ICO has raised $12 billion so far in 2018, a jump from $7.4 billion last year. “A strong culture of compliance should be in place before, not after these products are marketed to investors,” said NASAA President Joseph P. Borg. “While not every ICO or cryptocurrency-related investment is a fraud, it is important for individuals and firms selling these products to be mindful that they are not doing so in a vacuum; state and provincial laws or regulations may apply, especially securities laws.”
Elsewhere, China-based tech giant Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) joined Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) to impose anti-crypto measures, including clamping down online chat rooms concerning crypto topics. The news came as the Chinese government began crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry since September last year, including banning domestic exchanges and ICOs.