Investing.com - Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were higher on Friday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would review a decision to reject the applications of Bitcoin exchange traded funds.
The SEC rejected the applications from nine companies to list their Bitcoin ETF funds on Wednesday, citing concerns about fraud and manipulation of bitcoin markets. The proposals had not met the regulator’s requirement "that a national securities exchange's rules be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices,” the SEC said.
However the SEC’s four commissions er have decided to review that decision, according to letters posted on the agency’s website.
In addition, the SEC rejected a proposal by Winklevloss ETF that would have traded physical bitcoin.
Bitcoin rose 1.76% to $6,542.40 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 7:45 AM ET (11:45 GMT), to a two-day high. Still, bitcoin has struggled to gain ground so far this year, falling nearly 66% since its peak of almost $20,000 in December.
Cryptocurrencies overall were higher, with the coin market cap of total market capitalization was at $212 billion at the time of writing compared to $208 billion on Thursday.
Ethereum, the second biggest alternative currency by market cap, rose 2.92% to $276.74 while Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, increased 1.59% to $0.32588 and Litecoin was at $56.838, up 2.72%.
In other news, China, one of the largest sources of crypto demand, was reported to be moving to block more than 100 overseas crypto exchanges from offering trading services to domestic investors.