In what’s been a torrid year, with some cryptocurrencies shedding more than 80%, Josh Fraser, the co-founder of Origin, an open-sourced blockchain platform, said growth in the technology sector should see digital currencies end the year on a bright note. “Prices will slowly recover some of the losses they experienced in [the first of half of] 2018,” wrote Fraser in an email to MarketWatch.

“We’re seeing a shift towards development in the blockchain and crypto space, which is extremely important because some of the key pain points in the space are usability and pricing. People who have written off crypto as a result will only be drawn back in when they see real utility, versus speculation. This will help stabilize prices and is why building usable systems is critical.”

NY AG says exchanges susceptible to abusive traders

The Office of the New York state Attorney General released a report on the state of the virtual currency industry. The report, which began under former AG Eric Schneiderman, found that, among other things, that many platforms are vulnerable to malicious behavior. “The report finds that virtual asset trading platforms have yet to implement serious efforts to monitor and stop abusive or manipulative trading,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release.

“Few platforms seriously restrict, or even monitor, the operation of “bots” or automated algorithmic trading on their venue.”

The report added that of the 14 exchanges questioned, four didn’t supply answers, arguing they don’t operate in New York state and are therefore outside the remit of the AG.

Read:A B.S. in bitcoin? These colleges are now offering cryptocurrency-related courses

Ripple’s XRP surges 20%

Altcoins have pushed higher Tuesday, led by the XRP coin XRPUSD, -5.37% which runs on the Ripple network, and has surged 20.9% to 32 cents.

Elsewhere, after falling back below $200 on Monday, Ether ETHUSD, -5.46%, has regained the $200 handle, trading up 7.9% at $209.91, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, -4.15% was at $437.20, up 6.3% and Litecoin LTCUSD, -4.45% climbed by 4.1% to reach $53.86.

Coming off a tough Monday, bitcoin futures are trading marginally higher Tuesday. The Cboe Global Markets Group Inc.’s September contract US:XBTU8 rose by 1.4% to settle at $6,302.50, and the CME Group Inc. September contract US:BTCU8 ended up 0.7% at $6,275.

Read:Opinion: Your crypto ‘stable coin’ isn’t tethered to anything