Investing.com – Bitcoin prices continued to rise on Wednesday, despite a U.S. regulator warned that fraud among crypto investment promoters is “widespread”.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,840.2 by 11:56PM ET (03:56GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 1.2% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, jumped 3.8% at $413.32 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token surged 1.0% to $0.48821 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin slipped 0.9% to $113.30.
The Texas State Securities Board said in a report on Wednesday that it investigated 32 crypto investment promoters in the last four weeks, and that at least five failed to properly disclose the risk related to the digital coins to potential investors. Instead the promoters guaranteed returns of up to 40% a month, according to the findings.
Nearly two-thirds of the promoters did not provide physical addresses.
“Charming portraits and lengthy profiles may convey a sense of comfort and security, but virtually anyone from anywhere may be lurking behind the flashy graphics,” the report warned, adding that none of the 32 promoters were registered to sell securities in Texas.
Elsewhere, comments by chief executive of the International Exchange Inc. (ICE) Jeffrey Sprecher received some attention as he said crypto is trusted more than the Federal Reserve nowadays.
“There is a trend here we can’t ignore in my mind, so I don’t discount it. People put more faith in a guy named Satoshi Nakamoto that no one has ever met than they do in the U.S. (Federal Reserve),” Sprecher said.
Sprecher then added ICE is strongly considering to launch Bitcoin futures in the second half of 2018.