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Bitcoin soared over 9% on Wednesday to trade at its highest level since August, as concerns over a regulatory crackdown in the U.S. eased slightly.
The largest cryptocurrency
BTCUSD,
traded as high as $24,364 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk data. It is still down 65% from its all-time high near $70,000 in November 2021.
U.S. regulators have been increasing their oversight over the crypto industry, after several major companies collapsed last year.
The crypto rally on Wednesday might have stemmed from “a little sigh of relief” as stablecoin issuer Circle denied rumors that the company received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission over its dollar-pegged stablecoins, said Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda.
“Some traders are still confident that regulation won’t destroy stablecoins and that could mean that worst part of the crypto winter is over,” Moya wrote to MarketWatch via email on Wednesday.
Another stablecoin issuer, Paxos, said Monday that it received a Wells notice from the SEC on Feb. 3. The notice said that the SEC is considering recommending an action alleging that Paxos failed to register BUSD, a stablecoin issued by Paxos and branded by the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, as a security.
U.S. stocks ended a choppy session with gains Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
finished with a gain of around 39 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
jumped 0.9% and the S&P 500
SPX,
added 0.3%.
