According to Bloomberg News, Bitcoin surged beyond $42,000 amidst a sharp rally stirred by optimism in digital tokens about an anticipated US overhaul of crypto oversight that was called ‘historic’ by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was seen rising by as much as 10% to $42,427 on Wednesday morning in New York, which is the highest level peaked since March 2nd. While Ether was seen to be climbing by 8%, privacy coins Monero displayed huge gains.
President Joe Biden will be signing an executive order Wednesday that makes it mandatory for government agencies to look closer at building a digital US dollar to confront Illicit finance.
The main objective is to take advantage of digital assets benefits while simultaneously addressing the risks involved, as stated by White House in a fact sheet. As stated by an administration official on Tuesday, agencies will get 60 days to 180 days to finish the reports. The administration plans to carry out the recommendations as quickly as possible.
The order in the statement was praised by Yellen on the website of the Treasury on Tuesday, citing that the move balances between attending to potential risks and fostering innovation. That boosted the sentiment in an industry that has long sought greater direction in regulations.
Yellen states that the department’s efforts under the executive order would complement the work that has already been done, which also includes the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ reports that were put out on stable coins last year.
Even following Wednesday’s rally, the largest digital currency remains between $33,000 and $48,000, where the trading is the most this year. After having diverged from stocks at the beginning of last week, cryptocurrencies gave up the majority of the gains with the escalation of the Ukraine war, shunning the idea that they are safe assets to invest in during geopolitical turbulence.
Bloomberg News reports that privacy coins, with the name, since they offer a higher level of anonymity, were the main winners in the last 24 hours, with Monero registering a surge of 21% and with Zcash up by 17% as per data by CoinGecko.
The privacy coins offer a higher level of anonymity, but the network on which they operate is less decentralized and not as secure as Bitcoin, with a limited market cap. Instead of calling it a new trend, the current position is likely to be limited with a probability of greater volatility in the days to come.
