Investing.com - Bitcoin was near a two-month high on Wednesday as it struggled to stay above $8,000.
Bitcoin was trading at $8,207.60, falling 0.22% on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:31 AM ET (12:31 GMT), compared to a session high of $8,484.10.
The digital coin surged above $8,000 on Tuesday amid reports of impending approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision of a bitcoin ETF.
If approved, the ETF would allow retail investors to buy and sell bitcoin without going through an exchange. The SEC is expected to make a decision between August 10 and August 16.
Meanwhile, talk last week that financial giant BlackRock is looking into cryptocurrency investment also helped drive up the price of bitcoin. Still, bitcoin has struggled to gain ground in recent months, falling nearly 70% since its peak of almost $20,000 in December.
Cryptocurrencies, overall, were slightly lower. The coin market cap of total market capitalization was at $298 billion at the time of writing compared to $300 billion on Tuesday.
Ethereum, the second-biggest alternative currency by market cap, fell 0.80% to $471.13 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third-largest virtual currency, decreased 0.39% to $0.45652, while Litecoin was at $86.444, down 1.88%.
In other news, crypto exchange Coinbase said there was no evidence of employee insider trading on the platform in December, when the price of Bitcoin peaked. The review, conducted by two U.S. law firms hired by the exchange, was launched at the end of 2017. Coinbase is facing a class action lawsuit from clients who accuse the company of insider trading and violating California's unclaimed property law.