Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were flat on Friday, as Bitcoin struggled to gain ground above $6,500.
Bitcoin fell 0.17% to $6,594.50 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:39 AM ET (12:39 GMT).
Cryptocurrencies overall were slightly lower, with the total coin market capitalization at $218 billion at the time of writing, compared to $219 billion on Thursday.
Ethereum,or Ether, increased 0.22% to $223.95 and Litecoin was at $58.357, down 0.28% while XRP slumped 3.54% to $0.51706.
Meanwhile, exchange platform giant Coinbase is losing its vice president and head of institutional investments, Adam White, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. White has been with the company since it was founded in 2013.
The news came just one day after the San Francisco-based company hired Jonathan Kellner, former CEO of Instinet, as managing director of its institutional coverage division. Kellner is expected to take over most of White’s duties.
“While we’re extremely sad to see him go, we’re also confident in that group’s ability to keep executing on the vision that he laid out to be the most trusted venue for institutional investors to trade cryptocurrencies,” the Coinbase representative said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg.
In other news, some South Korean politicians are pushing for the government to reverse the country’s initial coin offering ban. Korean Democratic Party member Min Byung-Doo said the national policy committee is drafting bill on ICOs and “we will urge the government to create a working group to be participated in by related associations and organizations to exchange information and solve problems.”
While Korea is one of the biggest crypto markets and many exchanges operate in the country, the government has officially banned ICO and token issuances.