Bitcoin breaches $30k-mark fuelled by Powell's comments, spot ETF filings

US Fed chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said they see 'payment stablecoins as a form of money'

For the first time since April, Bitcoin breached the $30,000 mark late on Wednesday (IST). This follows Fed chair Jerome Powell's statement to US Congress saying that the crypto industry "appears to have some staying power".

Powell said in his statement, "We do see payment stablecoins as a form of money, and in all advanced economies, the ultimate source of credibility in money is the central bank...We believe it would be appropriate to have quite a robust federal role." He was addressing the twice-yearly hearing on monetary policy.

However, Powell added that the US central bank needs a "robust" role to oversee the stablecoins.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, on Thursday, Bitcoin was trading at $30,423, gaining over 21 per cent in the last seven days and 5.87 per cent in the last 24 hours. Ethereum, the second biggest digital token by market cap, was trading at $1,927, up 6.5 per cent in the last 24 hours and 16.82 per cent in the last week.

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The total market cap of the crypto market was up 4.8 per cent to $1.19 trillion.

Smaller coins like Cardano, Dogecoin, Solana and Litecoin also posted gains.

Another development that has provided succour to investors was the application to launch spot US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) by large asset managers. This includes names like BlackRock, Invesco and WisdomTress. If approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), these ETFs will be traded on US stock exchanges, most likely Nasdaq. 

Moreover, a new crypto exchange, EDX Markets, was launched in the US earlier this week. It is backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets and Charles Schwab Corp. Additionally, Deutsche Bank applied for a digital asset license in Germany.

These developments, it seems, have calmed the anxiety of investors caused by the SEC's crackdown against exchange operators Binance and Coinbase.

Even though Bitcoin remains far from its 2021 peak of nearly $69,000, this is only the second time it has crossed $30,000 since June last year.