Bloomberg News
Digital currencies open lower Friday, giving back some of yesterday’s gains that came after a prominent SEC official said both bitcoin and Ether shouldn’t be classified as securities.
While market consensus was that bitcoin wasn’t a security, Ether, because of its use in most initial coin offering (ICO) sales, wasn’t so certain.
“Based on my understanding of the present state of ether, the ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of ether aren’t securities transactions,” said William Hinman, director of corporate finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
After Thursday’s volatility, it has been a quiet start to Friday. Bitcoin, the worlds No. 1 digital currency, has given back gains, but is well off Wednesday’s low. A single bitcoin was last worth $6,537.47, down 1.8%, since Thursday 5 p.m. on the Kraken digital currency exchange.
Are Ether futures around the corner?
After yesterday’s SEC announcement, proponents of Ether, the currency which runs on the Ethereum network, began to contemplate the idea of Ether futures, one that has been pushed back in the past due to the lack of clarity around its regulatory standing.
“We are pleased with the SEC’s decision to provide clarity with respect to current Ether transactions. This announcement clears a key stumbling block for Ether futures, the case for which we’ve been considering since we launched the first bitcoin futures in December 2017,” said Chris Concannon, president and COO at Cboe Global Markets in a statement.
Ether is the second-largest digital currency with a market cap of $49.7 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Altcoins surrender some gains
After some altcoins, coins alternative to bitcoin, posted double-digit returns Thursday, most open Friday a little lower.
Ether which rose 11% Thursday, is lower by 4.3% at $496.06, Bitcoin Cash is off 4.1% at $860.00, Litecoin is down 4.2% to $97.93 and Ripple’s XRP has shed 3.1% to 55 cents.
The Cboe July contract opens 1.3% lower at $6,545, while the CME June contract is at $6,515, down 1.8%.