Investing.com – Ethereum surged, while other major cryptocurrencies also rose on Friday on the news that U.S. regulators has spared transactions involving Ethereum from federal securities rules.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,614.1 by 12:02AM ET (04:02GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 1.6% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 6.0% at $513.38 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token climbed 0.6% higher to $0.55035 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin added 2.9% to $99.54.
"Putting aside the fundraising that accompanied the creation of Ether, based on my understanding of the present state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions," said William Hinman, who heads the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of corporation finance.
Hinman then noted the SEC has not changed its stance on initial coin offerings (ICO), in which companies raise capital through sales of digital tokens. SEC officials have consistently labelled ICOs as security offerings in the past, and argued that they should be registered with the regulator.
“Simply labeling a digital asset a utility token does not turn the asset into something that is not a security,” Hinman said.
Bitcoin rose as much as 6% earlier in the day follow the news, after plunging more than 20% since the beginning of the week amid reports that its prices were manipulated during its 2017 peak.
The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into illegal trading practices that could potentially manipulate the price of Bitcoin and other popular virtual currencies, according to reports earlier this year.