Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices were mixed on Friday after losing 10% of market cap this week following U.S. SEC’s announcement to postpone a crypto ETF decision. Meanwhile, a report on Thursday suggested 41% of Americans are not interested in investing in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was up 1.6% to $6,446.3 at 1:30AM ET (05:30 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum slipped 0.3% to $360.3 on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ripple lost 3.3% to $0.33764 in the last 24 hours on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin plunged 0.7% to $62.501.
A survey conducted by analytics firm Harris Insights suggested that only 8% of U.S. citizens invest in cryptocurrencies, while 41% of Americans said nothing would motivate them to invest in such digital coins.
Following yesterday’s selloff, the market value of cryptocurrencies has fallen to about $230 billion, the lowest level since November 2017. The industry lost about $600 billion since its peak in January, according to Coinmarket.
Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrency prices plunged this week following SEC’s announcement to postpone the decision on whether to allow the fund from VanEck Associates Corp and Solid Partners Inc to list by the end of September. An initial deadline was due to expire next week.
In other news in Asia, Japan’s Financial Services Agency is reportedly set to update the country’s regulation to combat local speculative virtual coins investments.
“The rapid growth of investments in cryptocurrencies can be attributed to an expansion of margin trading, in which investors with little capital could earn huge profits, or sustain massive losses, by borrowing money. While foreign exchange margin trading has a 25 times leverage limit, the absence of such a cap on cryptocurrency margin trading makes it possible for investors to experience wild financial swings,” the agency said in an official statement.
Reports suggested that an increase in speculative investment in cryptocurrencies and the fact that digital currencies have seemingly made their way into corporate fundraising has prompted the Japanese regulatory body to decide creasint new regulations to respond to the situation.