Bitcoin bounces back as market jitters ease

The value of Bitcoin has rebounded on Monday morning after briefly touching an eight-week low on Sunday night.

In late-morning trading, the original cryptocurrency was trading at around US$53,479, up 7.4% over the last 24 hours. The rally followed a sharp dip late on Sunday night which saw the Bitcoin price briefly touch US$47,272, its lowest level since late February.

READ: Bitcoin falls below US$50,000 as crypto sell-off continues

The sharp upswing has effectively erased all of Bitcoin’s losses since last Thursday, with the new rally potentially being sparked by some more positive news for crypto markets compared to last week, which saw the market roiled by worries over regulation as well as plans for higher taxes on the wealthy and capital gains from the Joe Biden administration in the US.

One glimmer of light may have come from Turkey on Sunday afternoon when the head of the country’s central bank Şahap Kavacıoğlu ruled out a total ban on cryptocurrencies in the country.

However, Turkey is still planning a new raft of restrictions on the use of digital currency despite the absence of an outright ban, with the new rules said to include preventing the use of crypto as a form of payment in a bid to prevent large amounts of cash leaving the country.

The central bank is also likely to limit crypto usage in order to stem the tumbling value of the Turkish lira, which has drawn condemnation from political opponents of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Bitcoin’s ascent was followed by other major cryptocurrencies on Monday morning, with Ether up 9.9% at US$2,491 while XRP, also known as Ripple, rose 13.3% to US$1.18 and Litecoin jumped 8.2% to US$244.59. One outlier was meme-inspired crypto Dogecoin, which had slipped 2.6% to US$0.26.