Investing.com - Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies advanced on Friday morning in Asia. Italy is set to sign the European Blockchain Partnership today in Brussels, according to reports.
Bitcoin rose 2.9% to $6,711.5 at 11:43PM ET (03:43 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest digital token, hiked 4.97% to $230.77 on the Bitifinex exchange. It is down over 70% since January this year, and has dropped 50% in the last three months, according to data from Coin Desk.
“We believe Ethereum is about to stage a trend reversal and rally strong,” said Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors’ managing partner and head of research on Thursday.
XRP edged up 1.59% to $0.54237 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin surged 8.6% to $63.913 on the Bitifinex exchange.
Italy’s Member of Parliament Mirella Liuzzi will sign the European Blockchain Partnership, a collaboration of 26 EU countries, aiming to exchange information on technology. She said the government plans to hire talents in blockchain to develop a national strategy of the crypto-related sector.
“Joining the partnership will allow Italy…to define its own line in the development of [blockchain] technology – a practice which the previous government had never implemented,” she said.
The partnership started in April this year, first joined by 22 EU countries. Later it extended to include 26 countries with the entries of Greece, Romania, Denmark and Cyprus.
In the U.S. a bill that aims to launch a task force fighting against crypto-related financing terrorism was referred to the House of Representatives on Wednesday for consideration.
The proposed task force would have to brief the U.S. Congress before taking actions to halt crypto activities in the future. Individuals or entities who provide information leading to convictions for malicious use of digital tokens to fund terrorism will be rewarded.
Elsewhere, Technode’s report revealed that less than 10% of China’s middle class is investing in cryptocurrencies, digital tokens are the least popular investment option among other assets including real estate, fixed-term bank saving, and stock