The price of bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, has recently moved past the $6,500 mark after the cryptocurrency ecosystem saw the website of popular American actress Gwyneth Paltrow do a bitcoin Q&A with the CEO of Abra, and after the US’ mid-term elections.
According to CryptoCompare data, bitcoin reached a high of $6,560 before its price started dropping to, at press time, $6,510. The cryptocurrency is currently down about 0.5% in the last 24-hour period, and its market cap is of about $113 billion.
The cryptocurrency’s rise helped the ecosystem’s total market cap hit a 4-week high of about $220 billion, before the prices of most major cryptos started receding. Behind the initial rise were various factors, including the election of pro-crypto and blockchain governor Jared Polis in Colorado.
Similarly, Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California. Newsom, according to MarketWatch, was one of the first politicians to accept bitcoin donations, back in 2014. In a blockchain campaign paper Polis reportedly wrote
As governor, I will ensure that Colorado explores the potential use of blockchain technology and works alongside the business community, policy experts, local communities, and Coloradans to build a robust economy for the future.
The flagship cryptocurrency’s rise also coincided with the release of Grayscale Investment’s quarterly report, which showed institutional investors are taking advantage of the crypto ecosystem’s bear market. This, as the firm saw about $81 million come in during Q3, with the ratio of institutional investment growing from an average of 59% to 70% in said quarter.
While Taiwan has recently introduced regulations to crack down on anonymous cryptocurrency transactions, these had already been announced in April and were likely already factored in by the market. The cryptocurrency likely bounced off of the overbought territory, as shown by the RSI indicator in the chart above.
Top altcoins like Ethereum’s ether, EOS, ethereum classic, and litecoin are all down anywhere between 2.2% and 2.8%. Worse off are XRP and Bitcoin cash. XRP surged this wee after moving past its 200-day moving average, but has now fallen over 4.8% to $0.51.
Bitcoin cash, as covered, surged after exchanges showed support for its upcoming hard fork, and after the World Economic Forum published an article claiming it is consistent with Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision.
These developments helped the cryptocurrency rise rouhgly 50% from about $425 to a $640 high, before its price dropped after reaching the overbought territory. BCH is now down 5.2% in the last 24 hours and is trading at $602. It’s still up over 30% in the last two weeks.
Zcash and dash are among the top altcoins that have gained value in the last 24 hours, as they’re up 1.26% and 1.9% respectively. Brave’s Basic Attention Token (BAT) has risen over 8.4% to $0.35. This, after being added to Coinbase Pro and as users expected the browser’s founder to announce a partnership with a mysterious website with 80 million adblocking users.
