Bitcoin rises near $11,000 amid BOE’s call for cryptocurrency regulation

Bitcoin wavered near $11,000 on Friday, as Mark Carney, Bank of England Governor warned cryptocurrencies were failing as a form of money and needed to be regulated.

Bitcoin was trading at $10,872 up 0.45% as of 14:11 GMT on the Bitfinex exchange after hitting an overnight high of $11,151. Bitcoin has struggled to stay above $11,000 since it hit a two-month low of $6,000 in early February.

On Friday Carney warned that cryptocurrencies are a financial bubble and investors need to be protected.

“Cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users. The short answer is they are failing,” Carney said in a speech in London.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 group of major world economies are due to meet in Buenos Aires in two weeks. Cryptocurrencies are expected to be on the agenda.

As the virtual currencies grow in popularity, regulators around the world have been debating about the best way to regulate cryptocurrencies. The digital currency has come under fire in South Korea, where government officials are expected to regulate virtual currencies soon.

In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the initial-coin-offerings (ICO) industry. The agency has issued dozens of subpoenas to request information on companies tied to crypto markets, including insight into the structure of ICO sales and pre-sales.

Meanwhile, in China, officials are cracking down on anyone connected to trading in cryptocurrencies, which has been banned since last year.

Elsewhere, Japan’s 16 official crypto exchanges would set up a self-regulatory body, according to a statement released on Friday. Details including the organization’s name and the scope of its powers were not disclosed at the moment.

Other virtual currencies were down, with rival Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, falling 1.20% to $858.88 on the Bitfinex exchange.

The third largest cryptocurrency, Ripple, was down 3.72% to trade at $0.89428 and Litecoin was last at $206.85, a fall of 1.10%.