Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies traded lower across the board on Monday, with Bitcoin hitting a 13-month low, as regulatory actions continued to put downward pressure on digital coins despite positive news out of Switzerland.
Bitcoin fell 6.99% to $5,243.80 at 8:45 AM ET (13:45 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, near the intraday low of $5,200.00, its lowest level since October 18, 2017.
In other digital currency trading, XRP traded down 8.18% to $0.47678 on the Poloniex exchange, Ethereum tumbled 12.40% to $155.43 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, only Tether managed to hold in positive territory, inching up 0.08% to $0.98200 on the Kraken exchange.
Last week, Japan’s Financial Services Agency said it plans to regulate virtual coin wallets. Currently, only companies that buy and sell digital coins are required to register with the agency.
The agency argues that wallets are like bank accounts and should fall under their jurisdiction. At the moment, Japanese law does not apply to the wallet service providers because they do not trade in digital currencies.
In other regulatory news, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission compelled two crypto startups to register their token sales as securities offerings. In the latest crackdown announced on Friday, the SEC settled charges with Airfox and Paragon Coin, requiring both firms to register their tokens as securities, refund investors, pay penalties of $250,000 and file periodic statements with the regulator for at least the next year.
In positive news flow, Switzerland’s authorities approved the world’s first cryptocurrency ETF, according to several reports. The crypto startup Amun AG reportedly received approval for the fund that would allow investments in major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin and Bitcoin cash in the coming days.