Investing.com - Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrency prices were little changed on Thursday. Reports that Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is considering proposing a “sandbox” that grants special regulatory waivers for cryptocurrency exchanges received some attention.
Bitcoin inched up 0.4% to $6,362.5 by 12:45 AM ET (04:45 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum gained 0.6% to $198.45 and Litecoin rose 1.3% to $50.108. XRP gained 1.2% to $0.45190 on the Poloniex exchange.
Ashley Alder, chief executive of the SFC, said in a fintech conference in Hong Kong on Thursday that the regulator would announce later in the day a "new exploratory approach" to how virtual asset trading platforms might be regulated.
"Those exchanges that want to be regulated by us will be set apart from those that don't," he said.
"This is essentially an opt-in approach for exchanges and platform operators, and they will first explore the conceptual framework with us in a strict sandbox environment," said Alder.
A sandbox essentially gives cryptocurrency exchanges the option to operate in the city with compliance waivers while working with regulators to develop a longer-term regulatory framework for the industry.
In other news, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) said in a report that it is now classifying cryptocurrency as an institutional asset class.
The amount of virtual coin assets under management has been increasing in the last two years, with $7.11 billion currently being stored by hedge funds, venture capital firms and private equity firms, Morgan Stanley added.
The investment bank also noted three major issues traders had when investing in digital assets: regulatory uncertainty, a lack of regulated custodian solutions and a current lack of large financial institutions in the space.