Investing.com – Bitcoin prices slipped on Friday amid reports that the U.S. Justice Department launched a criminal probe into cryptocurrency market manipulation.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,589.2 by 12:02AM ET (04:02GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, down 0.5% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 0.9% at $601.4 on the Bitfinex exchange.
XRP/USD’s XRP token climbed 3.4% higher to $0.62712 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin added 2.2% to $123.00.
The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe to look at multiple forms of illegal activities that could potentially affect the virtual currencies prices unfairly, reports on Thursday said.
While the investigations are still at early stages, people familiar with the matter suggested that the probe is focused on activities such as spoofing, pump-and-dump scheme, and wash trading.
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) set up a fake IPO to warn investors against fake ICOs while the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is scheduled to host a workshop to spread awareness against cryptocurrency scams.
According to reports, Authorities are concerned that virtual currencies are vulnerable to scams for multiple reasons, including suspicion that exchanges are actively pursuing cheaters, wild price swings and a lack of regulations like the ones that oversee stocks and other assets.