Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap surged over seven percent to hit the $55,000 level on Wednesday for the first time in five months as market sentiment continued to improve after news that legendary hedge fund manager George Soros’s firm is trading bitcoin.
According to reports on Wednesday, Soros Fund management confirmed at a Bloomberg summit that the fund is trading bitcoin. “We own some coins – not a lot,” Dawn Fitzpatrick, the fund’s chief executive, was quoted as saying.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value rose to $55,499.96, its highest since mid-May. It passed the $50,000 mark for the first time in four weeks on Tuesday amid, among other things, mounting institutional interest.
Other cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, as they are called were trading mixed today. Ether, the coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain, has surged one percent. It is also up over 18 percent in the last seven days.
However, other major altcoins are down. Binance Coin, which is currently the third-largest coin by market cap is down over 1.5 percent. Cardano was down over two percent. Dogecoin, the meme coin, after surging over 20 percent this week is currently trading two percent lower.
Solana was down over five percent, whereas, bucking the trend, Polkadot rose nearly two percent. However, both the coins have surged over 10 percent in the past week.
A. Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap
| Cryptocurrency | Current market price | 24-hour change |
| Bitcoin | $55,054 | 7.17% |
| Ether | $3,541 | 1.14% |
| Binance Coin | $431 | -1.73% |
| Cardano | $2.18 | -2.09% |
| Tether | $1.00 | 0.01% |
| XRP | $1.07 | -0.18% |
| Solana | $153.72 | -4.52% |
| Dogecoin | $0.24 | -1.70% |
| USD Coin | $0.99 | 0.02% |
| Polkadot | $31.64 | 2.33% |
As per data from coinmarketcap.com, the crypto market’s total market cap by Thursday morning rose over three percent to $2.29 trillion. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s dominance in the market rose by over 1.5 percent to 45.20 percent.
There are seasonal factors as well for this rise.
“Bitcoin performs historically well in October, which almost makes the rising … price now a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’ve been saying repeatedly since the summer that I expect a new all-time high in October,” Ruud Feltkamp, CEO of cloud-based automated crypto trading bot Cryptohopper told Reuters.
B. Cryptocurrency top news
Bitcoin @ $100,000?
Mike McGlone, Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist predicted a strong bull run for Bitcoin and Ether and said “Bitcoin looks like a rested and discounted bull market.” He believes Bitcoin hitting $100,000 would now be “meagre by Bitcoin standards,” he told CoinMarketCap.
Are cryptocurrencies securities?
When asked this question by the US Senate, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler dodged the question. “I am not going to get into anyone token,” he said. But the securities laws are clear, “if you are raising money from somebody else, and the investing public has a reasonable anticipation of profits based on the efforts of others, that fits within the securities law,” he said. He said, “most” of the 5,000-6,000 cryptos fall under this definition and are subject to regulation by SEC.
Bitcoin futures premium on CME surges
Data suggests Bitcoin’s rally is fuelled by a surge in institutional investors. Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) are trading at a premium of 12 percent to the spot price, a research report by Arcane pointed. The data suggests “bullish tendencies seem to be brewing on the institutional platform,” it said.
AMC Theatres to accept cryptos in exchange for gift cards
AMC Theatres, the largest theatre chain in the US, will accept cryptos as payment for its digital gift cards. People can buy a gift card up to the value of $200 per day and pay using a BitPay wallet, its CEO Adam Aron tweeted Wednesday.
C. Top 3 trending crypto assets
| Cryptocurrency | Current market price | 24-hour gain |
| Bitcoin | $55,181.35 | 7.04% |
| Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token | $42.69 | 112.75% |
| Solana | $152.84 | -4.88% |
D. Top 3 gainers
| Cryptocurrency | Current market price | 24-hour gain |
| FOMO BABY | $0.0000000468 | 5,584.27% |
| Only Up | $0.0009582 | 2,459.02% |
| Wojak Finance | $0.0502 | 1,717.04% |
E. Top 3 losers
| Cryptocurrency | Current market price | 24-hour loss |
| Lyra | $0.0001701 | -64.13% |
| Dynamix | $0.000000001097 | -57.94% |
| Top Bidder | $0.2655 | -57.23% |
(Data is sourced from coinmarketcap.com)
(With inputs from Reuters)