Investing.com - Bitcoin and other virtual currencies were lower on Friday, amid concern of regulatory crackdowns in Japan and the United States.
Bitcoin was trading at $8,944.70, down 8.34% as of 7:46 AM ET (12:46 GMT) on the Bitfinex after falling more than 15% and hitting an overnight low of $8,468.00.
On Thursday the SEC warned investors against “unlawful online platforms” on Wednesday, saying that any exchange that trades digital assets that are securities need to be registered with the regulator. Many cryptocurrency platforms are not, the agency stated.
Digital currencies were also held back by news that Japan’s Financial Services Agency punished seven cryptocurrency exchanges for not having propers internal control systems. Two exchanges, Bit Station and FSHO, were ordered to stop trading for one month.
Meanwhile ex-Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Jim Newsome’s said the cryptocurrency industry is immature, as big institutional investors have not invested due to regulatory uncertainty.
Newsome warned that he felt there is “global competition” among international regulators to supervise cryptocurrency and the U.S. agencies have to be careful that they don’t run behind the rest of the world in innovation.
Other virtual currencies were down, with rival Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, falling 7.51% to $688.31 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, was down 8.82% to $0.77500 while Litecoin was last at $174.51, a decrease of 5.43%.