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Bitcoin Rebounds From 2018 Low to Buoy Rivals Ether, Litecoin

Bitcoin climbed 7.3 percent to $6,328 from close last week, heading to its biggest one-day increase since April.

Bitcoin Rebounds From 2018 Low to Buoy Rivals Ether, Litecoin
Bitcoin logo sits on a LL 1800W power unit supplying cryptocurrency mining machines. (Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin rallied to start July, giving a positive jolt to a digital-coin market that had lost about half of its value since early May.

The largest cryptocurrency climbed more than 12 percent to $6,620 from Friday, in its biggest intraday increase since April, according to composite prices compiled by Bloomberg at 11:56 a.m. in New York. The token’s largest peers -- Ripple, Ethereum and Litecoin -- climbed between 10 percent and 15 percent. The bounce began during weekend trading and spiked further in the U.S. morning.

Bitcoin Rebounds From 2018 Low to Buoy Rivals Ether, Litecoin

The positive start to July follows a selloff in June, when crypto investors parsed a flood of comments from policy makers across the globe, looking for any evidence they may crack down on peer-to-peer money. The decentralized nature of digital coins means optimism can swell across jurisdictions when just one regulator moves toward providing a safe home for international trading.

“I don’t read too much into this rally,” Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital, said by phone. “The crypto markets are especially volatile, even in the absence of news, and this volatility is nothing new. The bulls are once again testing resistance levels. We’ll see if this holds.”

Swiss politicians and regulators are expected to remove obstacles in coming months to give crypto companies full access to conventional banking services, Financial Times reported Monday, citing Heinz Taennler, finance director of canton Zug.

On Wednesday in the U.K., the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Treasury are scheduled to give evidence to a parliamentary committee on the opportunities and risks of cryptocurrencies, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, the Financial Services Commission unveiled new guidelines last week to prevent money laundering by using cryptocurrency -- a move that was welcomed by some industry groups.

Volumes Slide

Speculators are bidding up Bitcoin after three weeks of declines took it to the lowest level this year. The price drop coincided with the digital token’s monthly traded volume falling to its lowest in more than 12 months, according to data from Bitstamp Ltd., one of the industry’s major pricing sources.

Global cryptocurrencies as a group lost about half of their market value from May 5 through last Friday, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com, which tracks 1,597 digital coins.

Bitcoin Rebounds From 2018 Low to Buoy Rivals Ether, Litecoin

Bitcoin, developed after the 2008 global financial crisis shook the public’s faith in traditional finance, has tumbled from a record high of almost $20,000 last December. It’s still well above the 30 cents it traded for at the end of 2010.

--With assistance from Heejin Kim and Eddie van der Walt.

To contact the reporters on this story: Todd White in Madrid at twhite2@bloomberg.net;Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.net, Jeremy Herron

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.