It may be time for bitcoin (BTC) to finally break that $50,000 barrier as the alpha crypto holds near all-time highs. Meanwhile, ethereum (ETH) is not far behind.
Bitcoin is set for another attempt at the $49,000 handle following a rejection on Tuesday, Feb 9. According to price data from BitStamp, BTC briefly hit a new all-time high of $48,481 before falling back for the day.
Much of the news was occurring in other cryptocurrency ecosystems. However, Bezos’ Amazon hinted at plans for a cryptocurrency payments platform, completing (or simply joining) a plethora of traditional industry moves in the crypto-space.
BTC Leads the Market
BTC overshadowed ETH on the day, rising just over 6.68% at press time. ETH was up just under 3% as cryptocurrency’s second token broke above the $1,800 mark but failed to establish new ground.
BTC led a wider market surge, with the total market capitalization closing in on $1.5 trillion.
Today’s notable movers included IOTA (MIOTA), which saw a 40.7% gain on the day, rising above the $1 level for the first time in over three years. The move came as the IOTA team revealed plans to partner with Dell to build Alvarium, a project to measure the trustworthiness of data streams.
Cryptocurrency’s fourth-largest token by market capitalization, Cardano (ADA), also saw large gains this week. Since the start of the week, ADA has risen over 123%, gaining 15% today (Feb 11) alone.
The price action comes off of the back of several developments in the ADA space. Last week, it announced a multi-asset mainchain feature, which will allow ADA users to create custom tokens to execute transactions directly on the Cardano network.
Custody and Football
Several companies from all sectors announced or hinted at cryptocurrency ambitions today. America’s oldest bank, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., earlier announced plans to enter the crypto-custody space.
Mellon Corp.’s chief executive, Roman Regelman, said, “digital assets are becoming part of the mainstream,” and seemingly, the bank’s response is to jump right in.
Football fans also saw blockchain technology integrate with the sport. Seven-time world champions, AC Milan, launched a fan token in collaboration with Chiliz to encourage fan participation.
BTC Not For ECB
However, the news wasn’t all positive. European Central Bank (ECB) chair, Christine Lagarde, rebuffed the idea that the central bank would consider holding BTC.
In a conference call with The Economist, the BTC-skeptic went as far as to say the idea was out of the question. Nevertheless, some still think the ECB is doing enough on other fronts to support the industry, with projects like the ‘digital euro.’
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