Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were steady on Friday, as regulation concerns eased among investors but the digital assets still remained lower.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,505.6 rising 0.31% as of 9:11 AM ET (13:11 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, after falling to an earlier low of $7,377.80. The digital currency was down over 7% over the week.
Bitcoin had fallen to a six-week low on Thursday amid reports that the U.S. Justice Department is looking into whether traders are manipulating the price of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
The justice department is working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives tied to Bitcoin, on the probe. It’s just the latest of regulatory pressure that digital currencies have faced in recent months.
The criminal investigation includes looking into tactics such as spoofing and wash trading. Spoofing is when a trader submits orders and then cancels them once prices move, while wash trades are when a trader gives a false impression of market demand.
As governments have increased regulation, digital currencies have fallen in value. The total market cap was at $336 billion at the time of writing, compared to $390 billion on Monday.
In other news, virtual currency exchange Coinbase acquired trading platform Paradex for an undisclosed sum.
Paradex allows customers to trade coins directly with each other using digital wallets, which will greatly expand the number and types of coins customers can trade through Coinbase.
Other digital coins were slightly higher with Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, up 3.57%% to $602.16 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 0.32%% to $0.61219 while Litecoin was at $120.66, up 0.35%.