Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were slightly lower on Thursday, as a report from Cambridge University found that the number of crypto users have nearly doubled this year.
Bitcoin was mostly flat at $3,432.10 on the Investing.com Index, as of 8:43 AM ET (13:43 GMT).
Digital coins have fallen dramatically in recent weeks traders worry about increased regulatory scrutiny and volatility.
Cryptocurrencies overall inched down, with the total coin market capitalization at $109 billion at the time of writing, compared to $110 billion on Wednesday.
Ethereum, or Ether, increased 0.7% to $90.08 and Litecoin was at $23.85, down 1.1%, while XRP inched down 0.15% to $0.30385.
Even so, the volatility of the digital coin market was not enough to deter investors, a recent study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found. The number of users nearly doubled in 2018, from 18 million to 35 million, the report found. Still, users remain passive, the study stated.
“The industry is becoming more fluid, as the lines between exchanges and wallets are increasingly ‘blurred’ and a multitude of cryptocurrencies, not just bitcoin, are now supported by a growing ecosystem, fulfilling an array of functions,” Bryan Zhang, executive director of the center wrote in a statement.
In other news, exchanges in the Netherlands will soon be regulated by the Dutch Central Bank.
Cryptocurrency service providers in the Netherlands will be required to apply for a license and will need to adhere to know-your-customer rules, Dutch media site De Telegraaf reported.
The policy aims to prevent the use of digital tokens in money laundering or funding terrorism. The bank did not specify any timeline for the implementation.