Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies traded higher on Tuesday as bitcoin bounced off its lowest level this year amid a flurry of problems with South Korean crypto exchanges and further news of attempted regulation.
Bitcoin gained 1.06% to $3,582.70 on the Investing.com Index as of 11:57 AM ET (16:57 GMT). That was well off the intraday low of $3,465.20, its lowest level since Dec. 18.
XRP traded up 1.02% to $0.32035, Ethereum, or Ether, rose 1.10% to $118.27, while Litecoin was at $31.42, up 1.81%.
Cryptocurrencies overall were higher, with the total coin market capitalization at $120.5 billion at the time of writing, compared to $119.7 billion on Monday.
South Korea attracted notice in crypto headlines as two executives from the country’s crypto exchange Komid were reported to receive sentencing for faking trade volume and deceiving investors.
Separately, South Korean crypto exchange Coinzest was also reported to seek to recover about $5.3 million in cryptocurrencies that were accidentally sent to clients due to a computer error last week.
Outside the Asian bullpen, financial authorities in the Netherlands were reported to take steps to fight money laundering and financing for terrorist activities.
The Dutch central bank and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets were said to be working on a licensing scheme for crypto exchanges that would allow a wider assessment of potential users to evaluate whether they will comply with regulations.
The report came after reports over the weekend that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called for global coordination on the regulation of initial coin offerings (ICO). The organization stressed that ICOs involve “very high” risks which require a globally standardized set of regulations to avoid money laundering or other criminal activities.