Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices were higher on Friday, as a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is likely to be approved, according to leaked comments from a Securities and Exchange Commission official.
If true, a Bitcoin ETF would be welcome news to investors, helping the sector go mainstream.
The comments, which were tweeted out by the general counsel of Athena Blockchain, were made during an interview with Robert J. Jackson Jr., the only SEC Democratic commissioner, and the Congressional Quarterly.
“Eventually, do I think someone will satisfy the standards we’ve laid out there? I hope so, yes, and I think so,” he told the publication, according to the reportedly leaked interview excerpt, which is out for publication next week.
Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $3,450.90 as of 9:12 AM ET (14:12 GMT) on the Investing.com Index.
Cryptocurrencies overall were higher with the total coin market capitalization at $114 billion at the time of writing compared to $111 billion on Thursday.
Ethereum jumped 3.4% to $109.08 and XRP inched up 1.8% to $0.30055 while Litecoin was at a seven-month high of $37.79, up 11% amid reports that Litecoin Foundation is in talks to implement privacy features for the coin.
In other news, the British Columbia Securities Commission said cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga was beyond its purview, as the company faces backlash after its CEO died without telling anyone else the password.
The Canadian regulator said on Thursday that it was aware of the operations of the company but did not regulate it as it had no indication that it traded in securities or derivative or operated as an exchange.
About C$180 million ($135.39 million) of digital coins are frozen in users accounts after founder Gerald Cotten died in India of complications from Crohn's disease. The company owes C$250 million to 115,000 users.