Bitcoin gains to hold above US$30,000; Ether little changed

Bitcoin rose and held above US$30,000 in Friday morning trading in Asia, holding onto the strong gains made this week on the back of growing institutional interest in the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Ether was little changed. Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded mixed, with Cardano’s ADA token gaining and Binance’s BNB losing ground. Overall, most tokens were holding weekly gains spurred by Bitcoin’s rally.

Crypto

Bitcoin rose 0.33% over the last 24 hours to US$30,056.27 at 6:30 a.m. in Hong Kong, up 17.52% for the past week, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency broke through resistance at US$30,000 early morning on Thursday for the first time since April, reaching a high of US$30,737.33.

Ether was little changed, rising 0.02% to US$1,879.66 to gain 12.87% for the week. 

BlackRock Inc.,the world’s largest asset manager with US$8.59 trillion under management at the end of 2022, filed an application on June 15 for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Two more U.S.-based asset managers — WisdomTree and Invesco — also filed Bitcoin ETF applications this week.

“Major cryptocurrencies were seeing strong performances this week — Traders reacted positively to the possibility of seeing a Bitcoin ETF come to market,” Denys Peleshok, head of Asia at Belize-based financial brokerage CPT Markets, in email comments.

“A successful launch of a bitcoin ETF could open the way for more inflows from individuals and professional investors alike,” Peleshok added. “The investment vehicle could lower the barrier of entry into the market and attract significant volumes of investment into bitcoin in particular.”

Boston-based Fidelity Investments, another major financial services company that managed US$4.2 trillion as of the first quarter of 2023, is also said to be preparing to file a Bitcoin ETF application. 

In another encouraging move for institutional adoption of crypto, EDX Markets opened for business on Tuesday as a New Jersey-based digital asset exchange backed by Wall Street firms such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Corp. EDX said U.S. regulatory compliance is a core feature of its operations.

These moves by traditional finance follow the crackdown on the U.S. crypto sector this month by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which filed lawsuits against the Binance.US and Coinbase exchanges. The SEC alleges they illegally traded cryptocurrencies that should have been registered as financial securities, among other charges.

“[Bitcoin could] continue benefiting from its status as a quasi-commodity when most other digital assets are considered securities by regulators. As a result, Bitcoin could emerge as a winner from the SEC’s legal efforts,” said Peleshok of CPT Markets. 

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell commented on Bitcoin during a monetary policy hearing on Capitol Hill this week, describing the token as having “staying power” as an asset class.

Meanwhile, Mastercard Inc., the world’s second largest payment processor, announced Thursday that it will expand its Engage network to embrace more blockchain and digital asset partners. Mastercard Engage connects businesses with qualified technology partners. 

Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed, although making weekly gains spearheaded by Bitcoin. Binance’s BNB token lost 2.53% to US$242.49 while gaining 2.36% in the past seven days. 

Cardano’s ADA rose 2.21% to US$0.2922, adding 10.90% in the last week.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose 0.14% to US$1.17 trillion in the last 24 hours, while trading volume fell 25.24% to US$45.06 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.