Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies overall traded higher on Tuesday as they once again moved into the spotlight on Capitol Hill in a discussion about regulation of the sector.
Total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased to $266.46 billion by 10:49 AM ET (14:49 GMT), compared to $265.02 billion a day earlier.
Bitcoin, the largest alt coin by market cap, fell 0.6% to $9,557.6 on the Investing.com Index.
Among its closest rivals, Ethereum slipped 0.1% to $209.03, XRP gained 3.0% to $0.31947, Litecoin traded up 1.0% to $90.363, while Bitcoin Cash rose 3.2% to $317.6.
Although not a directional mover, the U.S. Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs was, at the time of writing, holding a hearing, entitled “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain."
The witness panel is represented by Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of payments company Circle, who will speak on behalf of the Blockchain Association, Rebecca M. Nelson, a specialist in international trade and finance at think tank the Congressional Research Service and law professor Mehrsa Baradaran from the Irvine School of Law at the University of California. All three participants hold differing views on the value of cryptocurrencies.
The hearing takes place after the House Financial Services Committee grilled Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) earlier this month over plans to launch Libra, its own digital coin.
The company’s crypto chief David Marcus said at the time that Facebook would wait to have all regulatory approvals and address any concerns before proceeding with the launch.
In its latest quarterly report, filed with the Security and Exchange Commission, Facebook admitted that there a number of factors that could block the project altogether.
“Libra has drawn significant scrutiny from governments and regulators in multiple jurisdictions and we expect that scrutiny to continue,” Facebook said in the filing. “As such, there can be no assurance that Libra or our associated products and services will be made available in a timely manner, or at all.”