Investing.com - Bitcoin was holding steady on Tuesday, hovering below the psychologically important $8,000 level after U.S. regulators once again postponed a decision on whether to approve an exchange traded fund tracking the digital currency.
At 07:32 AM ET (11:32 GMT) Bitcoin was trading at $7,886.2 on the Investing.com index.
Early last week Bitcoin prices hit 2019 highs of $8,323.9, nearly double where they were at the beginning of April.
After tumbling from all-time highs of close to $19,900 in December 2017 Bitcoin spent most of the first quarter of 2019 hovering below the $4,000 level before regaining momentum early last month. While no obvious price triggers were visible, the rally took place against a backdrop of markets revising down their interest rate expectations across the world.
On Monday the Securities and Exchange Commission delayed a ruling on CBOE Global Markets' plan to list a Bitcoin ETF from VanEck Associates and SolidX Partners.
The delay does not “indicate that the Commission has reached any conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved,” the SEC said.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are hoping that the approval of a Bitcoin ETF would be a major step towards more widespread adoption of digital assets, which have been dogged by concerns over price manipulation, fraud and high volatility.
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday that scams in Britain involving currencies and crypto assets like bitcoin totaled 27 million pounds ($34.38 million) in the last financial year, with average losses of 14,600 pounds per victim.
The FCA said it would run advertising to raise awareness of online trading scams.
"We're warning the public to be suspicious of adverts which promise high returns from online trading platforms," said Mark Steward, the FCA's executive director of enforcement and market oversight.
Other major cryptocurrencies were mixed, with Ethereum up 1.6% at $251.31, XRP ticking up 0.7% to 0.39480 and Litecoin at $90.580, a drop of 0.7%.