Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices gained on Wednesday as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stopped accepting public comments on Bitcoin ETF proposals, but did not announce an official decision or timeline of when such funds would be launched.
Bitcoin gained 1.8% to $6,569.2 by 12:00 AM ET (04:00 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum jumped 5.9% to $221.79, and Litecoin rose 3.4% to $55.665. XRP traded 5.0% higher to $0.53954.
Citing the possibility of “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices,” and the fact that Bitcoin futures are “insignificant” in size, The SEC denied nine Bitcoin ETF applications from multiple exchanges on August 22.
“[...] the Exchange has offered no record evidence to demonstrate that Bitcoin futures markets are ‘markets of significant size.’ That failure is critical because, as explained below, the Exchange has failed to establish that other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices will be sufficient, and therefore surveillance-sharing with a regulated market of significant size related to bitcoin is necessary.”
However, the agency backtracked on its decision on August 23 and said that its officials decided to re-evaluate their actions and would start soliciting public opinion on the issue.
In other news, volatility of Bitcoin has sunk to its lowest in two years, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The cryptocurrency surged over 1,300% in 2017 to a record high of almost $20,000 in December. So far in 2018, however, it has slumped as much as 70%, before settling into a period of relative stability since September.