Investing.com - Bitcoin was lower on Thursday, as cryptocurrencies remained in bearish territory.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,193.70, falling 3.11% on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:33 AM ET (12:33 GMT). The digital coin has struggled to gain ground in recent months, falling nearly 70% since its peak of almost $20,000 in December.
Cryptocurrencies overall remained near a one-and-a-half week-low. The coin market cap of total market capitalization was down $245 billion at the time of writing compared to $254 billion on Tuesday.
Ethereum fell 2.70% to $432.79 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 3.29% to $0.43535 while Litecoin was at $76.752, down 4.26%.
In regulation news, the U.S. Department of Justice established a task force to combat consumer fraud, including digital currency fraud. The Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud, will work on deterring crime and focus protection on elderly people, service members, and veterans.
In other news, an anonymous government official from India told Quartz that the country will not outright ban virtual currencies. India’s finance minister has ordered a study of cryptocurrencies. The official told Quartz that cryptocurrencies should be regulated as commodities are not likely to be banned. The biggest concern for is finding a way to regulate the trade of digital coins.
“Allowing it as a commodity may let us better regulate trade and so that is being looked at,” the source told Quartz.
“Trade is not a criminal offence. Most of us trade in various asset classes in the stock market. So how is this [cryptocurrency trading] any different? What has to be in place is a mechanism to be sure that the money used is not illegal money, and to track its source is the most important thing.”