Investing.com - Bitcoin was slightly higher on Friday as a U.S. regulator set up a sandbox to encourage cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,474.80, inching up 0.60% on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 9:16 AM ET (14:16 GMT), not far from its session high of $7,503.30.
The U.S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to help companies create cryptocurrency and blockchain products. The consumer protection agency launched a regulatory sandbox to help firms explore innovated products, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The sandbox is usually set up by regulators to help companies who want to launch new products and is generally established by regulators to let smaller firms create and test products in a space monitored by regulators.
“You can make a strong argument...that new technology actually offers new and innovative ways to protect consumers,” said Mike Mulvaney, acting chief of the CFPB. “You are moving light years beyond the complaint hotline to where you can really see things happening in real time.”
Cryptocurrencies overall were lower. The coin market cap of total market capitalization inched down to $284 billion at the time of writing compared to $291 billion on Thursday.
Ethereum fell 3.85% to $464.38 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third-largest virtual currency, decreased 7.04% to $0.45862, while Litecoin was at $85.209, down 3.57%.
Meanwhile Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Wednesday there are significant risks to alternative currencies.
“Cryptocurrencies are great if you’re trying to hide money or if you’re trying to launder money. It doesn’t really have any intrinsic value, so I think there are investor or consumer protection issues as well,” he told the House Financial Services Committee.