Investing.com - Top cryptocurrencies were higher on Thursday morning in Asia, with Bitcoin trading around the $9,300 level.
Bitcoin rose 1.83% to $9,154.5 by 12:15 AM ET (04:15 GMT). Ethereum edged up 0.18% to $266.28, XRP added 1.09% to $0.43361, and Litecoin was up 0.79% to $135.939.
Social media giant Facebook’s crypto project Libra, expected to launch in 2020, remained in focus following news that the plan will face scrutiny from the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on July 16.
The hearing will explore the project as well as any data privacy considerations it may raise, in what is the latest sign that policymakers around the globe are casting a wary eye on the project.
The hearing was announced a day after Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, requested that development be halted until lawmakers and regulators have properly reviewed the project.
According to Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), its global stablecoin will operate on the native and scalable Libra blockchain, and be backed by a reserve of assets ostensibly “designed to give it intrinsic value” and mitigate volatility fluctuations.
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy and Finance in France, has said that the French government intends to “ask for guarantees” from Facebook in regard to Libra. Meanwhile, Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Market, said Russia would not legalize the use of Libra.