Bitcoin (BTC) prices climbed above $8,000 in what could be considered a "Tax Day" bounce for investors.
Markets had been monitoring capital flows in and out of Bitcoin with the deadline for filing in the United States today (April 17).
As we previously reported, Thomas Lee, of Fundstrat Global Advisors, believed Bitcoin prices dropped in Q1 2018 thanks to tax season.
According to his April 5 report, U.S. households likely owed $25 billion in cryptocurrency capital gain taxes. To pay it off, Bitcoin holders may have been selling off some of their coins since the start of 2018.
Meanwhile, Ripple executives are making waves in Europe...
The company's top executive on regulatory relations, Ryan Zagone, called on British regulators to reexamine their "wait-and-see" approach to cryptocurrencies.
"We're at that time now where we need more clarity and rules and we need more certainty," Zagone said in an interview with the The Telegraph.
Here is a recap of the top cryptocurrency prices at 12:00 p.m. EDT (returns in last 24 hours).
- Bitcoin: $8,091.48, +1.81%
- Ethereum: $513.39, +1.96%
- Ripple: $0.67, +4.18%
- Bitcoin Cash: $778.75, +3.60%
- Litecoin: $136.77, +8.21%
Now that we know all of today's price movements, here's what has been moving these cryptocurrencies...
Cryptocurrency News Today
On Tuesday, the market capitalization of the global cryptocurrency sector hit $331.30 billion.
Bitcoin comprised 42.2% of the total cryptocurrency market, with a market cap of $137.41 billion.
The top performer in the space was Pundi X, which rallied 70% on the day.
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Other top performers from the top 50 cryptocurrencies included Populous (up 13.62%), 0x (up 12.91%), Bytecoin (up 11.31%), Zilliqa (up 10.57%), Stellar (up 10.57%), EOS (up 10.27%), Dogecoin (up 6.54%), Siacoin (up 5.44%), and Litecoin (up 8.21%).
The worst performers from the top 50 cryptocurrencies included Verge (down 7.32%), RChain (down 2.07%), and Tether (down 0.21%).
Wall Street Meets Crypto
Markets were paying close attention to the news that cryptocurrency wallet firm Blockchain had hired a former executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).
Breanne Madigan, who once oversaw relationships for funds with $1.49 trillion in assets under management at GS, has been hired to drive business with hedge funds and other large institutional investors.
This could be a significant development, as many analysts project that competition for institutional investors will accelerate in the coming months.
Chile Turns on Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Will there be a ban on cryptocurrencies in South America's richest nation?
That is the fear after Chilean banks shuttered accounts for three of the nation's largest cryptocurrency exchanges earlier this week.
CryptoMarket, Buda, and OrionX have filed appeals in court, but no one is sure whether this will be the first step in a ban of cryptocurrencies.
"They're killing an entire industry," Buda founder and CEO Guillermo Torrealba told Bloomberg.
"It won't be possible to buy and sell crypto in a safe business in Chile. We'll have to go back five years and trade in person. It seems very arbitrary. Hopefully the appeals court will see we're right."
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About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.