Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies attempted to rally on Wednesday, with Bitcoin rising to a four-day high.
Bitcoin surged almost 10% to $4,95.20 on the Investing.com Index, as of 8:03 AM ET (13:03 GMT), after falling to a 14-month low of $3,688.00 on Sunday.
Virtual coins began falling in mid-November during a hard fork in Bitcoin cash, as investors feared it could drive down demand for the coin. Other analysts say a decline in crypto miners was the reason for the sudden selloff.
Cryptocurrencies overall were higher, with the total coin market capitalization at $131 billion at the time of writing, compared to $121 billion on Tuesday.
Ethereum, or Ether, increased 10% to $117.77 and Litecoin was at $33.716, up 10%, while Index jumped 9% to $0.38777.
Meanwhile, chances that the Security and Exchange Commission will approved a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund are becoming even more slim.
SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said at a conference that he is worried virtual currencies can be easily stolen and manipulated, Bloomberg reported.
“What investors expect is that the trading in that commodity that’s underlying the ETF is trading that makes sense, is free from the risk or significant risk of manipulation,” said Clayton. “Those kinds of safeguards don’t exist in many of the markets where digital currencies trade.”
The SEC rejected a number of requests from companies to list Bitcoin ETFs, but is reviewing their decision to deny two of them. The agency has expressed concern that cryptocurrencies are unregulated and have argued that some alternative coins fall under their jurisdiction. The regulator is planning to to issue additional guidance on when securities laws apply to digital coins.