Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices slipped on Thursday, with Bitcoin and Ethereum dropped more than 1%. Reports that a federal judge dismissed lawsuit against Coinbase received some focus.
Bitcoin dropped 1.2% to $6,507.5 by 12:40 AM ET (04:40GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange, Ethereum fell 1.8% to $203.88 and Litecoin was down 1.5% at $52.979. XRP lost 2.7% to $0.46067 on the Poloniex exchange.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, from the Northern District of California, dismissed a lawsuit filed by Arizona resident Jeffrey Berk in March against Coinbase, CoinDesk reported.
Berk accused the exchange for letting insiders trade bitcoin cash prior to its listing on the exchange, the report said.
"Unsurprisingly, those who had been tipped off [about bitcoin cash's listing], immediately swamped Coinbase and the GDAX [sic] with buy and sell orders, thinning the liquidity but obtaining BCH at fair prices. The market effect was to unfairly drive up the price of BCH for non-insider traders once BCH came on line at the Coinbase exchange,” said Berk.
In dismissing the suit, Judge Chhabria wrote that "Berk's complaint does not sufficiently articulate the legal basis for his claims," and explaining that "a reader of the complaint is thus left wondering what Coinbase should have done differently, or why the rollout of bitcoin cash would have gone more smoothly had Coinbase done whatever Berk thinks is appropriate."
In other news, Reuters reported that Japan is now allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to self-regulate through the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association. Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) will transfer oversight powers to the industry body, according to the report.
"It's a very fast-moving industry. It's better for experts to make rules in a timely manner than bureaucrats do," Reuters cited an unnamed senior FSA official as saying.