Investing.com – Bitcoin prices advanced on Tuesday, despite reports that South Korea’s government is widening its probe on local crypto exchanges.
Bitcoin was trading at $8,712.0 by 12:02AM ET (04:02GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 3.5% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 4.2% at $726.4 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token climbed 5.3% higher to $0.73448 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin added 5.8% to $145.83.
Reports by local media suggested that South Korea is targeting the use of corporate accounts that could potentially lead to money laundering.
“Following a request by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the prosecution to address growing anti-money laundering compliance concerns and possible abuse of cryptocurrencies in money laundering and fraud, the FSC is looking into exchanges’ corporate accounts opened in local banks,” an official of South Korea’s Financial Service Commission (FSC) said on Sunday.
The news came after Upbit, the largest Korean crypto exchange by volume and the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange, gets accused of fraud and is currently under investigation.
The financial investigation team of the Seoul Southern District public prosecutors’ office sent more than 10 prosecutors and investigators to Upbit headquarters on May 10 and May 11 “to secure computer hard disks and accounting records,” reports suggested. Upbit allegedly “pretends to hold [virtual currencies] without holding virtual currencies,” local media noted.