Following a remarkable week for cryptocurrency development, for the first time in over a month, Bitcoin has passed the $7,000 mark.
The price jump resulted in a $9 billion market cap growth in a matter of minutes. Considering last week's destabilization and $24 billion loss, the crypto market notes a serious improvement.
According to data on CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin price had a 10 percent growth spike, while other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Ripple or Litecoin noted between 5 and 10 percent growth within 24 hours.
The notable market growth was influenced by a few things, including recent news about BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager worth over $6 trillion, becoming involved in Bitcoin.
The global investment management corporation has set up a working group to investigate the ways they can take advantage of the crypto market.
Moreover, prior to the growth of Bitcoin and the market overall, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) released a report that backed up cryptocurrencies.
According to this international financial watchdog, cryptocurrencies are not a material risk to global financial stability.
Barry Silbert: Bitcoin Is Here to Stay
At CNBC's Delivering Alpha conference held this Wednesday in New York, Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert stated that Bitcoin is here to stay.
According to him, the recent Bitcoin prices were this year's lowest and Silbert is now optimistic for the cryptocurrency as an investment.
Silbert's statement was backed up by Circle's Jeremy Allaire, who also attended the session.
He believes that blockchain will serve as the foundation of future technological innovations. Allaire claims that cryptocurrencies and blockchain are the future of the internet.
Ethereum Could Be a Major Driving Force for Blockchain
According to Allaire's statements, the cryptocurrency that could be the main driving force for this to happen is Ethereum, due to the fact that you can build apps on top of it.
Currently, Ethereum has an enormous amount of developer activity because they can issue new tokens on top of it and create new kinds of financial contracts using the smart contracts technology, Allaire said.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market value, has noticed a stable rise in terms of price.
The coin had a 10 percent growth increase after the rise of Bitcoin's price on Wednesday.
A Huge Win for Monero
The privacy-centric coin Monero successfully completed its first review on the new "bulletproof" protocol, which is considered to be a real advancement in terms of space, verification and fees.
Monero first announced these plans last year; the deployment would consist of two stages. During this week, the protocol has been successfully completed with only a few minor issues found that are trivial to correct.
The team has been working hard on the coin's development lately, which has also resulted in price growth.
Bulletproofs are non-interactive "zero-knowledge proofs" used by Zcash and other privacy-focused coins.
Cryptocurrencies in the Focus of Two U.S House of Representatives Committees
The House Committee on Agriculture this Wednesday held a public hearing in which the future of digital assets was discussed, while the Financial Policy Subcommittee hearing examined to what extent the U.S. government should consider these cryptocurrencies as money.
Contrary to the FSB, witnesses before the U.S. House of Agriculture Committee were consistent that cryptocurrencies complicate the existing regulatory frameworks.
Additionally, Congressman Brad Sherman during the Financial Services Subcommittee called for a blanket ban on cryptocurrency buying.
The hearing only revealed the general disagreement with the idea of establishing a central bank digital currency. According to Sherman, the U.S. should prohibit citizens from buying or mining cryptocurrencies.
He went on to say that cryptocurrencies serve for nothing but facilitating narcotics trafficking, terrorism and tax evasion.
Russia Will Regulate Crypto Miners and Holders
In other news, Russian authorities will establish the norms for the digital economy in the Russian Federation Civil Cod.
By passing the bill on cryptocurrencies, the country will regulate crypto miners and holders under their existing Internal Revenue Code.
This is expected to happen during the fall season of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets.
Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the committee, told local news outlet Izvestiya that the individuals engaged with cryptocurrencies will pay personal income tax, while legal entities will have to pay taxes in accordance with their type of business. The tax will be separate for miners and holders.
Zcash Will Be Added on Coinbase Trading Platform?
Coinbase, a platform for selling and managing digital currency, is exploring the possibilities of adding five new coins to its trading list, including Zcash (ZEC). Although the option is still being explored, if this happens, Coinbase will provide a regulated on-ramp to utilizing Zcash's technology for over 20 million users.
Besides Zcash, the other four cryptocurrencies are 0x (ZRX), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Cardano (ADA).
Additionally, the platform is planning to start negotiations with local banks and regulators in order to add the digital assets to as many jurisdictions as possible.
