Bitcoin held on to its gains above the $15,000 psychological mark, up 0.6% at press time early Wednesday, as a former public official who is considered to be cryptocurrency-savvy was appointed to lead the financial policy transition team for President-elect Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
What Happened: Former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Gary Gensler has been appointed to lead the financial policy transition team for President-elect Joe Biden, CoinDesk reported Tuesday.Gensler has studied cryptocurrency closely and earlier testified before the Congress advocating against comparisons between cryptocurrencies and Ponzi schemes.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the deposit contract for Ethereum 2.0 has reached over 50,000 ETH or 10% of the required needed to usher in the new update, according to CoinDesk.<\/p>\n
The Vitalik Buterin-created cryptocurrency is making a move away from proof-of-work to a model that supports proof-of-stake.<\/p>\n
In order to become a validator on the new network, an Ethereum user must stake a minimum of 32 ETH. Once the new network goes live the validators will start earning block rewards to the tune of 8-15% annually, CoinDesk reported.<\/p>\n
Ethereum (ETH) traded 3.73% higher at $460.68 at press time, Chainlink (LINK) traded 3.55% higher at $13.13 and XRP traded 1.62% higher at $0.255.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Monero (XMR) wereoutliers to the upward movements of the altcoins declining 2.18% and 0.93%to $257.45 and $115.83, respectively.<\/p>\n
Why It Matters: Analysts pointed to institutional interest in the cryptocurrency space and the bullish movement of these assets overall, CoinDesk reported separately.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin has returned 114.94% returns and Ethereum has shot up 254.26% on a year-to-date basis.<\/p>\n
Various institutions are committing to new products and R&D and giving a new set of investors more comfort that the space is maturing,Brian Mosoff, CEO of Ether Capital, told CoinDesk.<\/p>\n
BTC is digesting the recent confusing macro and political events and consolidating before its next move, said Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner at Tellurian Capital, as per CoinDesk.<\/p>\n
Bonnefous noted the rotation from BTC to decentralized finance (DeFi), which he said was in full swing now and was typical of traders redeploying capital to higher yielding assets.<\/p>\n
Price Action: Bitcoin traded 0.59% higher at $15,389.19 at press-time.<\/p>\n
2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
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