Crypto Prices Rise Despite Calls for More Regulation

Investing.com – Bitcoin and other major digital coin prices continued to rise on Wednesday in Asia despite reports of more regulations in the crypto space.

Bitcoin added 0.98% to $4,002.4 by 01:53 AM ET (06:53 GMT). Ethereum was up 2.54% to $150.83, and XRP rose 1.85% to $0.36456.

Litecoin also gained 3.14% to $39.228.

Japan’s financial watchdog Financial Services Agency (FSA) is mulling closing a legal loophole that allows unregistered firms to solicit funds in cryptocurrencies instead of cash.

The issue received attention in November when Tokyo police arrested a group running a scam that collected funds in cryptocurrency and cash. Officials were cited in the report saying if the scam had solicited only cryptocurrency, the criminals might not have been arrested.

Just a day before, the watchdog was reportedly considering approving crypto exchange-traded funds.

In other news, a major layoff of Switzerland-based cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift received some attention on Wednesday morning. According to its CEO Erik Voorhees, the crypto exchange has laid off 37 employees – one third of its team.

“It’s a deep and painful reduction, mirrored across many crypto companies in this latest bear market cycle,” the company said in a statement.

He cited a crypto recession, which he called dramatic and severe. Indeed, the Bitcoin bubble burst last year and has plummeted by 70% in its value in one year’s time.

ShapeShift’s layoff followed similar moves by other crypto companies such as Ethereum blockchain startup ConsenSys, blockchain startup Steemit, and crypto mining giant Bitmain.

ConsenSys and Bitmain laid off 13% and 50% of their workforces, respectively, last month, while blockchain startup Steemit cut 70% of its employees in November 2018.

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