Investing.com – Cryptocurrencies prices edged up on Tuesday, with Bitcoin gaining more than 1%. Reports that Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma declared Bitcoin a potential bubble received some attention.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,244.1 by 12:02AM ET (04:02GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 1.7% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 1.6% at $457.6 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token climbed 0.8% higher to $0.47894 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin added 2.6% to $81.73.
The founder and chairman of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Jack Ma reiterated his caution over Bitcoin on Monday, and warned that it may be driven by torrid speculation.
“Blockchain technology could change our world more than people imagine,” Ma told reporters. “Bitcoin however could be a bubble.”
Bitcoin prices recovered on Monday after dipping as low as $5,787 on Sunday, marking its lowest price so far in 2018. The virtual coin fell more than 70% from its December high just short of $20,000.
The fall in prices followed news that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) hit six local crypto exchanges with business-improvement orders on Monday, and reports that South Korea-based crypto exchange Bithumb has been hacked and 35 billion won (US$31.5 million) worth of virtual coins were stolen last week.
Bitcoin bounced back Monday, but blockchain venture capitalist Spencer Bogart said it might fall again.
"If we go back to the summer of 2017, when crypto prices were booming, there was about a 100, 200, maybe 300 new crypto hedge funds that were formed," said Bogart, who is a partner at Blockchain Capital.
Bogart then said brokers and exchanges are now looking to sell as the hedge funds are now “hitting their one-year lock up”.
"They’re saying, ‘hey, I want to redeem out of that fund,'" Bogart said. "That means forced selling on behalf of all of these new crypto funds that have popped up. I think that could take prices artificially lower."