On Wednesday morning trading in Asia, Bitcoin was trading above US$20,000 for the first time in almost three weeks. Following the U.K. parliament’s vote to regulate cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, Ether and the remaining top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, also increased.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin increased 4% to US$20,091 in the 24 hours, reaching a three-week high of US$20,348. Ether surged up to US$1,562 before falling 8.8% to US$1,406, or levels seen before the network Merge in mid-September.
As part of the proposed Financial Services and Markets Bill, the U.K. House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, voted on Tuesday to regulate cryptocurrency assets as financial instruments. The House of Lords, the upper house, will now vote on the bill before it becomes law. This occurs as Rishi Sunak, who on Monday was appointed as the nation’s next prime minister, has a history of endorsing cryptocurrencies while serving as the finance minister.
In the top 10 coins on CoinMarketCap, Cardano witnessed the largest gains, rising 11.3% to US$0.40 from an overnight high of US$0.4142. Solana experienced considerable growth as well, jumping 8.9% to US$30.91 and earlier reaching a two-week high of US$32.19.
The native token of the BNB Smart Chain, which is managed by Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, increased by 3.8% to US$285 and surpassed Circle, the second-largest stablecoin in the world, to take the fourth spot on the ranking as its market cap crossed US$45.6 billion.
According to Tracey Plowman, chief operating officer of Bamboo 61 Pty Ltd., an Australian company that provides micro-investments in cryptocurrencies, Volatility in Crypto has been extremely low over the past two months compared to the NASDAQ and S&P suggesting that crypto is less reactive to macro pressures.Â
As a result, we’re observing significant buy side pressure in cryptocurrency, especially for Ethereum, which is showing signs of potential momentum change. Volatility is still anticipated in the medium term, despite the fact that this is a welcome reprieve.
Tuesday saw gains for American stocks as well. The S&P 500 Index increased by 1.6%, the Nasdaq Composite Index by 2.3%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 1.1%.
