Investing.com – Cryptocurrencies prices extended their gains on Wednesday, with Bitcoin pushed past the $7,000 price level for the first time since June.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,466.5 by 12:01AM ET (04:01 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 9.7% in the last 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 5.1% to $506.4 on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token was also up 6.7% to $0.51618 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin jumped 7.7% and traded at $91.872.
“No specific catalyst triggered this rally,” said Lucas Nuzzi, director of technology research at Digital Asset Research. “Some traders have claimed that BTC is forming an H&S bottom, and volume has spiked.”
Bitcoin last traded above $7,000 on June 8, but plunged to near the $6,000 mark the following weekend as the whole crypto sector saw a selloff that wiped out about $42 billion amid reports of an exchange hack in South Korea and lingering concerns over a clampdown on trading platforms in China.
Reports that investment giant BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK). formed a team to look into cryptocurrency and blockchain investments were cited as supporting the crypto prices earlier this week, although CEO of the company Larry Fink later denied such plans.
"I don’t believe any client has sought out crypto exposure," Fink said in an interview on Bloomberg Television Monday. "I’ve not heard from one client who says, ‘I need to be in this.’"
The Cryptocurrency sector was under pressure amid growing scrutiny around the world in recent months amid a range of issues, including thefts, market manipulation and money laundering.
In January, the Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked and $534 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen, while a month later, Italian exchange BitGrail was attacked online and lost $195 million.