Bitcoin Edges Up; South Korea to Enable Crypto Payments At 6,000 Business Outlets

Investing.com – Bitcoin prices edged up on Thursday as South Korea have reportedly reached agreements to enable cryptocurrency transaction at 6,000 business outlets later this year.

was trading at $7,918.2 by 11:00AM ET (03:00GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 1.1% over the previous 24 hours.

, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was down 0.6% at $459.09 on the Bitfinex exchange.

’s XRP token lost 0.3% to $0.57080 on the Poloniex exchange.

Meanwhile, plunged 2.3% to $131.53.

A report in the Korea Times said that Bithumb, South Korea’s biggest crypto exchange, has reached a partnership agreement with mobile payment service provider Pay to enable crypto transactions across the country by the end of June.

In addition, Bithumn also formed a partnership with hotel booking platform Yeogi Eottae to allow its customers to conduct transactions using cryptocurrencies on the site.

The news came after a change of tone from government officials on the virtual coin trade in the country. A government official threatened to ban initial coin offerings at the beginning of the year but regulators later said in February that they hope to “normalize the virtual coin business in self-regulatory environment”, rather than banning them altogether.

Elsewhere, BUDA and Crypto, two Chilean cryptocurrency exchanges, reportedly asked local regulators in a public statement to provide clear regulatory stance after a number of banks shut down their accounts for dealing with cryptocurrencies.

“The lack of knowledge and regulatory clarity has given rise to the fact that some banks, out of fear, misinformation or perhaps by strategy, are refusing to provide their services to anyone who has any relationship with any digital asset”, the two banks said in the statement.

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