Investing.com - Bitcoin was slightly higher on Thursday, holding above $8,000 for the third consecutive day.
Bitcoin was trading at $8,217.40, inching up 0.31% on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:48 AM ET (12:48 GMT), compared to a session high of $8,300.70.
The digital coin surged above $8,000 on Tuesday amid reports of impending approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision of a bitcoin ETF. If approved, the ETF would allow retail investors to buy and sell bitcoin via the intsrument rather than directly.
Still, bitcoin has struggled to gain ground in recent months, falling nearly 70% since its peak of almost $20,000 in December.
Cryptocurrencies, overall, were steady. The coin market cap of total market capitalization was at $300 billion at the time of writing, not far from its peak of $304 billion on Wednesday.
Ethereum, the second-biggest alternative currency by market cap, rose 1.37% to $476.50 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third-largest virtual currency, increased 1.23% to $0.46157, while Litecoin was at $86.988, up 0.92%.
In other news, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission told Congress it was spending more on monitoring digital currencies.
“Emerging financial technologies are taking us into a new chapter of economic history. They are impacting trading, markets, and the entire financial landscape with far-ranging implications for capital formation and risk transfer,” CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo said on Wednesday.
The CFTC oversees the regulations of futures and options markets. As cryptocurrencies have increased in popularity, regulators around the world have struggled to define the technology as a security, commodity or currency.