Investing.com - Bitcoin steadied on Tuesday but remained under pressure as investors feared further downside momentum in the popular digital currency continued amid ongoing regulatory concerns and subdued crypto demand.
Bitcoin rose 2.90% to $6,840.70 on the Bitfinex exchange, after falling to an intraday low of $6,650.
Bloomberg report the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Jay Clayton, said he was surprise by the levels fraud in initial coin offerings (ICOs), and supported increased regulatory efforts.
“I believe we must continue to explore whether our regulatory approaches appropriately protect retail investors,” SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said Tuesday at a conference in Chicago.
That added to ongoing regulatory jitters after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced Monday that it is working with the Bank of England and the UK Treasury on a discussion paper for cryptocurrencies.
The recent selloff in cryptocurrencies came amid a drop in the rate of new entrants, which Barclays (LON:BARC) on Tuesday characterised as “infections,” and added that former holders were “developing ‘immunity’ to further investment.”
Barclays warned, citing survey findings, that bitcoin may have peaked amid a lack of speculative interest to support a move higher in the popular cryptocurrency.
“Combined with the results of our theoretical modelling, survey findings suggest that, unlike the peaks in Bitcoin prices in 2011 and 2013, the most recent peak may have been the ultimate top and that speculative interest could decrease from here,” the bank said.
The total market cap of cryptocurrencies rose to about $264 billion, at the time of writing, from about $256 billion on Monday. At the turn of the year, the total cryptocurrency market cap was well above $800 billion. Barclays estimated Tuesday, however, the total crypto currency market cap would struggle to rise above $780 billion.
“We estimate – with generous assumptions – that the ceiling for total crypto currency market capitalisation is between $660bn and $780bn,” Barclays said.
Ripple XRP rose 2.32% to $0.49075 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum rose 5.03% to $408.82.