Bitcoin Holds Above $6,000 While Industry Figures Warn Over ETF ‘Benefits’ TODAY NEWS 2018

Bitcoin (BTC) prices are up around .05 percent on Thursday, August 16, bringing the leading cryptocurrency solidly back over $6,000 after a market fall that had seen BTC dip below that psychological price point on August 14.

ata from Cointelegraph’s price tracker shows overall 2.5 percent monthly gains for Bitcoin as of press time, despite the latest correction from it’s weekly high of around $6,600, against weekly losses of almost 10 percent.

Continuing its trend of short-term volatility, BTC/USD is currently around $6,407, with commentators eager to see if support at $6,000 has solidified.

Bitcoin’s 7-day price chart. Source: Source: Coinmarketcap

The price performance comes as the cryptocurrency industry becomes increasingly indifferent to the potential effect of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) acceptance or rejection by U.S. regulators.

Previously hailed as a factor which could propel or deflate markets significantly, Andreas Antonopoulos joined Nick Szabo in fresh skepticism of ETFs this week, the latter arguing they “might cause more problems than they’re worth.”

In a Q&A session recording, Antonopoulos described ETFs as “a multibillion dollar ‘not your keys, not your Bitcoin’ scheme.”

Beyond Bitcoin, altcoin worries continue, with Ethereum (ETH) gaining slightly Thursday but still continuing weekly losses close to 30 percent and monthly ones approaching 33 percent.

At press time, ETH/USD traded around $292, several percentage points off earlier lows this week which marked the largest altcoin’s biggest plunge since September 2017. Ethereum’s 7-day price chart. Source: Coinmarketcap

Other major altcoins posted broadly flat growth, with the exception of Stellar (XLM), which is down around 3 percent on the day, trading at around $0.22 by press time. Another altcoin outlier is Ethereum Classic (ETC), whose addition to Coinbase may have sent prices soaring by over 16 percent on the day, with the coin currently trading around $14.09 by press time.

Total market cap is around $207 billion by press time, a number last seen in November 2017.