Investing.com – Cryptocurrencies prices were mixed on Friday, with Bitcoin trading slightly below the $7,500 mark after a rally earlier this week.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,456.8 by 12:31AM ET (04:31 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 1.8% in the last 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, lost 2.1% to $465.5 on the Bitifinex exchange.
XRP/USD’s XRP token was down 2.4% to $0.46670 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin slipped 0.6% and traded at $85.763.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that cryptocurrencies-related concerns are not his priority at the moment. The cryptocurrency market, estimated to be valued at around $300 billion, is not big enough to pose a threat, and the U.S. central bank isn’t looking to regulate it, Powell said during the testimony on Wednesday.
Powell then clarified that while the Fed has said in the past that it would monitoring the development of cryptocurrencies, it does not have jurisdiction over them, and is not currently looking to to provide oversight. He added that the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as well as state authorities would continue to oversee crypto-related businesses.
In other news, U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman’s comment raised some eyebrows as he called for an investigation of the crypto industry and said that the U.S. should prohibit its citizens from buying or mining cryptocurrencies. He claimed, not for the first time, that other than crypto being used by criminals and potential tax evaders, it could also be used by rogue states that sought to bypass sanctions by the US government.
He made his comments during a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.