Bitcoin Prices Fall, Study Finds Two-Thirds of Cryptocurrency Exchanges Not Fully KYC Compliant

Bitcoin prices fell on Friday, while Ethereum and Ripple were also down more than 2%. Meanwhile, a recent study found that two-thirds of cryptocurrency exchanges

Bitcoin prices fell on Friday, while those of fellow cryptocurrencies Ethereum and Ripple also declined by more than 2%. In other news, a recent study found that two-thirds of cryptocurrency exchanges were not fully KYC compliant.

Bitcoin prices were trading at $7,637.8 by 12:40AM ET (04:40 GMT) on the Bitfinef exchange, down 1.1% over the past 24 hours.

The world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum prices lost 2.1% at $600.7 on the Bitfinex exchange.

Meanwhile, Ripple’s XRP token traded 1.5% lower at $0.66799 on the Poloniex exchange.

Elsewhere, Litecoin prices fell 2.2% to $119.79.

A study that examined 25 cryptocurrency exchanges across Europe and the U.S. found that over two-thirds of cryptocurrency exchanges fail to fully comply with Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedure.

Conducted by the analytics house P.A.ID Strategies, the study showed that 68% of exchanges allowed users to begin trading without having to provide any official identification. In fact, they could start trading by giving up only their telephone number and email address.

In related news, a separate report this week suggested that roughly $1.1 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the first half of 2018.

"It's surprising just how easy it is without any tech skill to commit cybercrimes like ransomware," Carbon Black Security strategist Rick McElroy said in an interview with CNBC. "It's not always these large nefarious groups, it's in anybody's hands."

According to the reports, exchanges made up 27% of attacks this year. In January, $530 million worth of cryptocurrency NEM were stolen from Japan-based exchange Coincheck. In December, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit lost 17% of its digital assets.