Investing.com – Bitcoin held steady despite U.S. President Donald Trump signing an executive order banning any transactions within the United States involving any digital currency or assets issued by the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018.
Despite giving up some gains following the news, Bitcoin traded at $8,330, up 12.36%, Ripple XRP rose 21.31% to $0.66056 on the poloniex exchange, while Ethereum rose 12.16% to $530.30.
"All transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order."
The ban comes following “recent actions taken by the Maduro regime to attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions by issuing a digital currency in a process that Venezuela's democratically elected National Assembly has denounced as unlawful.”
The ban was said to apply to U.S. citizens as well as any person within the United States.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in December launched cryptocurrency “petro,” and claimed it would be backed by oil reserves.
News of the ban offset some of the gains seen Monday which followed Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s comments that “crypto-assets do not pose risks to global financial stability at this time."
Carney’s comments eased fears that the G20 meeting, which got underway in Argentina Monday, would be used to broach the subject of a global coordinated effort to regulate cryptocurrencies. Last week, Japan was said to be planning to use the G20 meeting to call for combined regulatory efforts to combat the use of cryptocurrencies in money laundering.
Despite the sharp rise Monday the total cryptomarket cap at $321 billion – at the time of writing – remains at levels last seen during the so-called crypto bloodbath in February, when a heavy selling across the board saw bitcoin drop to a low of $6,000.