Investing.com – Bitcoin eased from highs but remained modestly supported amid signs of ‘staying power’ as total cryptocurrency market remained steady.
The total cryptocurrency market cap rose to $391 billion, up nearly modestly from Wednesday, after snapping three straight days of declines on Tuesday. The total cryptomarket cap, however, remains well below its early January peak of roughly $829 billion.
The recent rebound in bitcoin comes as investors continued to mull reassuring comments on the value of bitcoin from Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo.
"It's important to remember that if there were no bitcoin, there would be no distributed ledger technology," Giancarlo said Tuesday, when asked by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton about the value of the technology underlying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
Yet regulatory jitters continues to weigh on overall sentiment as US regulators step up efforts to increase oversight of virtual currency like bitcoin.
“We may be back with our friends from Treasury and the Fed to ask for additional legislation,” SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said when asked whether Congress needed to act on virtual currencies.
Bitcoin rose 0.91% to $8,180, while Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, fell 1.34% to $802.78
Ripple XRP, meanwhile, rose 2.02% to $0.74224.