Investing.com - The price of digital currency bitcoin rose on Thursday along with gains by other major cryptocurrencies as the digital currency market recovered following a price crash.
Bitcoin was trading at $8,181.8 by 04:33 AM ET (09:33 AM GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange. The jump marked a gain of around $2,000 from Tuesday’s more than two month lows.
Even with the price recovery, bitcoin remains down around 20% for February.
The gains came after a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday on the regulatory fate of digital currencies was not as negative as many investors had feared.
The chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission struck a balanced tone on the need to protect consumers without a heavy handed crackdown on development of cryptocurrencies.
The testimony came amid a crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea and China.
Cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply since early January as governments clamped down on trading and major banks implemented a ban on using credit cards to buy digital currencies.
Prices have also been hit by fears over potential price manipulation. U.S. regulators are investigating the Bitfinex exchange over its links to digital asset Tether, amid fears that it is being used to artificially inflate bitcoin prices.
Other major cryptocurrencies also traded higher, with Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, climbing around 2.7% to $817.48 on the Bitfinex exchange.
The third largest cryptocurrency Ripple gained around 1.0% to trade at $0.74.