Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices were little changed on Friday in Asia. Trading volume was thin over the past few days as China, South Korea and other Asian countries celebrate the Chinese new year.
While not a directional driver, a study from the Bank of Korea warned that a central bank-issued digital currency could increase financial instability. The introduction of such a product would replace demand deposits held by local commercial banks, causing a liquidity shortage and increasing interest rates, the study found.
Earlier reports suggested that the central bank has already decided not to launch its own digital coin.
Bitcoin slipped 0.3% to $3,399.9 by 12:06 AM ET (05:06 GMT).
Ethereum slid 0.4% to $104.69, XRP traded 0.2% lower to $ 0.29139, and Litecoin edged up 2.3% to $33.472.
In other news, the saga surrounding Canadian Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX continued to be in focus after Bloomberg reported this week that CEO of the firm Gerald Cotten filed a will 12 days before his death and designated his wife as the only beneficiary and the executor of his estate.
Citing analysts, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said on Feb. 6 the fund could actually be missing. James Edwards, a cryptocurrency analyst, reportedly reviewed the publicly available transactions of the exchange and found no evidence that the exchange controlled any of the wallets it claimed to.
“It appears that there are no identifiable cold wallet reserves for QuadrigaCX,” he wrote in a report that was cited by Cointelegraph.
The sage began on Feb. 1 when the Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian firm has been unable to locate or access the funds since Cotten passed on Dec. 9, as he was the only person that has access to the system that stores the funds. He was also the only one that knows the passwords and the recovery key.