Investing.com – Bitcoin rose for the second straight day as easing regulatory fears provided a stable backdrop for a sharp move higher in the popular digital currency.
Rising inflows into the market continued amid fading regulatory fears after South Korea appeared to pivot toward more ‘friendly’ approaches to regulate the crypto industry.
“We are positively considering the adoption of an exchange approval system as the additional regulation on cryptocurrencies, “ a South Korean government official said, BusinessKorea reported. “We are most likely benchmark the model of the State of New York that gives a selective permission.”
That paved the way for cryptoinvestors to return to the market as initial fears that South Korea – which accounts for a large part of cryptocurrency trading activity – would issue an outright ban on cryptocurrencies was one of the chief reason for the recent crash.
Still reeling from the selloff that saw bitcoin tumble to a low of $6,000 on the bitfinex exchange, investors appear to have adopted a somewhat measured approach in their return to the market.
The total cryptocurrency market cap edged tentatively higher to about $474 billion, at the time of writing, from roughly $450 billion Wednesday.
The inflows into the cryptomarket has provide a broad-based boost to both large-cap and small-cap cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin rose 8.46% to $10,064, while Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose 1.87% to $924.80.
Ethereum’s is expected to remain well supported as a surge in initial coin offering (ICO) activity tends to boost demand for Ethereum as ICO issuers often request payment in ether.
Ripple XRP, meanwhile, rose 2.53% to $1.105.