Investing.com — Bitcoin prices rose on Wednesday, further recovering from recent losses as bargain hunters took advantage of recent price drops, although sentiment remained negative amid increased supply due to Mt Gox and the German government.
The world's No. 2 token, Ether, also advanced, extending a recent rally as markets awaited a key decision from the Securities and Exchange Commission on a cash exchange-traded fund.
rose 2.8% over the past 24 hours to $58,870.5 as of 01:40 ET (05:40 GMT), briefly crossing $59,000 as it recovered from more than four-month lows.
Bitcoin benefits from bargain buying, but selling fears persist
The world’s largest currency has benefited mainly from bargain buying following recent price declines. Bargain hunters have been seen entering the markets since last week, and cryptocurrency investment products such as Bitcoin ETFs have seen capital inflows on this trend.
But sentiment toward cryptocurrencies remained largely unstable, especially amid uncertainty over how many tokens the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox will distribute as part of compensation for a 2014 hack.
Mt Gox has been seen moving around $9 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this year, which represents a considerable portion of the current supply. A sale on that scale presents huge losses for the Bitcoin price.
Additionally, the German government was also seen disposing of bitcoins confiscated from a hacking website. Reports said that the government had at least $2 billion worth of bitcoins and was constantly selling the token on the open market.
The dollar's recent weakness also offered some relief to bitcoin, although the greenback stabilized this week following testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, where he gave no clear signal on plans to cut interest rates.
Attention is also focused on key inflation data, due out on Thursday.
Cryptocurrency price today: Ether gains ground on ETF hype, altcoins rally
Broader cryptocurrency prices followed Bitcoin's recovery.
rose 1.2% to $3,106.66, extending a recent rally as markets awaited the SEC's approval of issuers' amended applications for a spot Ether ETF.
The ETF could be approved by mid-July and is expected to attract some measure of institutional capital to the world's second-largest cryptocurrency.
Among other altcoins, it rose 1.9%, also gaining on the prospect of a spot ETF, while and rose 0.9% and 2.6% respectively.
Among memecoins, it rose 3.9%, while adding 0.9%.
