Yahoo Finance Bitcoin, Ripple Lower, Ethereum Eases from Record Highs
Investing.com - The prices of major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ripple were lower on Sunday, while Ethereum eased after hitting record highs on Saturday.
Bitcoin was trading at $13,455 by 04:22 AM ET (09:22 AM GMT) on the Bitfinex down 4.79% from its previous close. That pushed bitcoin’s market capitalization down to $229 billion.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was last at $1,320.90 on the Bitfinex exchange after peaking at $1,423.20 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ripple's XRP token was trading at $1.85 on the Poloinex exchange, down around 10% for the day.
Cryptocurrency prices plummeted last Thursday following reports that South Korea may be preparing to ban all virtual currency trading in the country.
South Korea’s justice minister said the government is preparing a bill to ban trading of virtual currencies on domestic exchanges. The country is one is one of the largest markets for major coins like bitcoin and ethereum.
Cryptocurrency trading in South Korea is highly speculative and digital currencies are often traded at a premium, meaning that they are priced significantly higher in the country's exchanges than elsewhere in the world.
Cryptocurrency prices had already come under pressure earlier in the week after website CoinMarketCap moved to exclude prices from South Korean exchanges from its calculations of digital currency prices, citing "extreme divergence in prices from the rest of the world."
On Saturday, Indonesia’s central bank issued a fresh warning about digital currencies, urging investors to refrain from owning, selling or trading the tokens.
“Owning virtual currencies is very risky and inherently speculative,” the central bank said in a statement.
The digital tokens “are prone to forming asset bubbles and tend to be used as method for money laundering and terrorism funding, so it has the potential to affect financial-system stability and harm the public.”
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