Investing.com – Bitcoin retreated further on Wednesday after the Securities and Exchange Commission raised concerns over some unlawful trading platforms functioning as exchanges.
On the bitfinex exchange, Bitcoin fell 8.04% to $9,940.
"The SEC staff has concerns that many online trading platforms appear to investors as SEC-registered and regulated marketplaces when they are not," the SEC said in its statement on potentially unlawful online platforms for trading digital assets.
“If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an ‘exchange,’ as defined by the federal securities laws, then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration,” the SEC added.
The SEC also questioned the integrity of trading platforms that perform exchange-like functions by offering order books with updated bid and ask pricing and data about executions on the system, warning that “there is no reason to believe that such information has the same integrity as that provided by national securities exchanges.”
Sentiment on bitcoin has turned negative this week after the digital currency failed to sustain a move above $11,000 to $12,000 – price levels said to offer strong technical resistance.
The sharp decline in bitcoin has been characterized by a slump in total cryptomarket cap to about $404 billion – at the time of writing – from $436 billion Tuesday, suggesting that investors continued to slash their bullish crypto bets, while new entrants remained reluctant to buy the dips.
Ripple XRP fell 5.71% to $0.85710 on the poloniex exchange, while Ethereum fell 8.40% to $748.44.