Crypto Prices Surge as BlackRock Shows Interest in Virtual Coin Market
Investing.com – Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies prices surged on Tuesday after reports revealed that investment giant BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK). is looking into cryptocurrency investments.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,718.5 by 12:55AM ET (04:55 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 5.4% in the last 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 6.2% to $477.4 on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token was also up 7.4% to $0.47916 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin jumped 6.7% and traded at $84.2.
However, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink denied such plans by the company. “I don’t believe any client has sought out crypto exposure. I’ve not heard from one client who says, “I need to be in this,”” Fink told Bloomberg TV in an interview, adding that at this stage the company is merely keeping an eye on the market to see how it behaves.
BlackRock discussed cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in a company report published in February. “We see cryptocurrencies potentially becoming more widely used in the future as the market matures,” BlackRock said in the report. “Yet for now we believe they should only be considered by those who can stomach potentially complete losses. Similarly, blockchain needs to overcome significant hurdles to reach its promising future.”
“BlackRock entering the crypto market is great news for the industry and one which was to be expected. It was always a question of when not if, “Iqbal Gandham, UK managing director of trading platform eToro, told The Independent.
In other news, several banks and regulators in Hong Kong said on Tuesday they would jointly launch a trade finance platform in September using blockchain technology.
The platform would be one of the largest government-led, cross-bank effort to reform the trade finance sector using technology that underpins virtual coins such as Bitcoin.
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