New York: Bitcoin put more distance between itself and smaller rivals such as Ethereum and Ripple on Monday by rallying as much as 5.8 per cent, building on its biggest weekly gain since December.
The largest digital token pared some of its advance, but was still trading 4.6 per cent higher at $7,689.25 (Dh28,238.77) as of 1.04pm in London, according to composite prices compiled by Bloomberg, poised for the highest close in two months. Major peers have been unable to keep pace with Bitcoin’s rally, and once again lagged the gain. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index rose 0.2 per cent.
Along with rivals like Ripple, Ethereum and Litecoin, Bitcoin had a torrid time in the two months through mid-July, under pressure from largely negative news flow that included more hackings and tougher regulatory moves. However the cryptocurrency has now spent a full week above its 50-day moving average, according to Bitstamp pricing. On Monday it also pierced the 100-day moving average.
Bitcoin may simply be benefiting from its status as the biggest and most high-profile cryptocurrency as sentiment surrounding the industry continues to shift. Some traders will have been heartened after the Group of 20 nations’ decided to only reiterate that crypto-assets lack attributes of sovereign currencies, without providing much detail on how member states should regulate them.
They said crypto-assets do not at this point pose a global financial-stability risk, while asking an inter-government panel that combats money-laundering to clarify in October 2018 how its standards apply to crypto-assets.
The entire market value of more than 1,600 cryptos tracked by Coinmarketcap.com is about $287 billion, roughly equal to the market cap of just of financial-payments company Visa Inc.
