Bitcoin Struggles Up, South Korea Licenses 6,000 Crypto-Payment Enterprises

Investing.com - Bitcoin prices are trying to rise on Thursday after South Korea reportedly reached an agreement to activate a cryptocurrency transaction for 6,000 business outlets this year.

-Bitcoin is trading at $ 7.918.2 at 10.00 am in exchange for Bitfinex, up 1.1% over the past 24 hours.

-Ethereum, the world's second largest crypto currency by market capitalization, fell 0.6% to $ 459.09 on the Bitfinex exchange.

-Ripple coins have lost 0.3% to $ 0.57080 on the Poloniex exchange.

-Meanwhile, Litecoin fell 2.3% to $ 131.53.

A report in the Korea Times said that Bithumb, South Korea's largest crypto exchange, has reached a partnership deal with Pay's mobile payment service provider to enable crypto transactions across the country by the end of June.
In addition, Bithumb also cooperates with the hotel booking platform Yeogi Eottae to allow its customers to transact using cryptocurrency on the site.
The news comes after a tone change from government officials about the virtual coin trade in the country. A government official threatened to ban initial coins at the beginning of the year but the regulator later said in February that they hoped to "normalize the virtual coin business in its own rules environment", rather than banning this field altogether.
Elsewhere, BUDA and Crypto, two Chilean cryptocurrency exchanges, reportedly asked local regulators in a public statement to provide a clear regulatory stance after banks closed their accounts in handling crypto currency.
"The lack of regulatory knowledge and clarity has led to the fact that some banks, out of fear, misinformation or perhaps by strategy, refuse to provide their services to anyone who has connections with any digital asset," the two banks said in a statement release.