Bitcoin briefly breaks above US$40,000, Ethereum and other cryptos gather steam
The digital currency has managed to erase almost all of its losses following a plunge over the weekend
Bitcoin managed to momentarily inch back above the US$40,000 level on Wednesday morning as the digital currency managed to recover almost all of its losses from its plunge over the weekend.
In late morning trading, Bitcoin was up 7.5% in the last 24 hours at US$39,736, giving it a market cap of around US$744bn.
READ: Bitcoin holders hit record high as crypto investors ‘buy the dip’
Before the slight pullback, Bitcoin managed to inch above US$40,000 at around 7.30am BST, hitting a peak of US$40,894 at around 9am, its highest level since last Friday before jitters around Chinese regulation and a wider downward trend in the crypto markets sent its price tumbling over the weekend.
A number of positive developments have helped to boost Bitcoin’s recovery this week, most notably the creation of the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC), an organisation comprised of North American cryptocurrency miners designed to promote energy transparency and improve sustainable mining practices.
The BMC was created following a call between some of the continents biggest crypto miners and Tesla boss Elon Musk, who recently contributed to a decline in the price of Bitcoin by suspending the company’s policy of accepting Bitcoin as a payment method amid concerns over its environmental impact.
Crypto miners involved in the BMC include London-listed (), MicroStrategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR), Holdings Ltd (TSE:GLXY), (), Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MARA), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd (CVE:HIVE), Core Scientific, Blockcap and ().
Bitcoin wasn’t the only crypto seeing a bounce on Wednesday, with Ethereum rising 14.9% to US$2,820 while XRP, also known as Ripple, rose 10.4% to US$1.02. Meme-inspired crypto Dogecoin was also on the up, jumping 5% to US$0.35.
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