Today In Cryptocurrency: Ethereum Rises, Tech CEO Calls Bitcoin A Scam, Institutions Warming To Crypto Trading

The cryptocurrency market continued its hot streak on Tuesday, with most major currencies up more than 5 percent. Here’s a look at some of the headlines that were moving the cryptocurrency market today and which currencies were on the move.

Headlines

A new Thompson Reuters survey found that one out of five financial firms are currently considering trading cryptocurrencies within the next year. Banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions have mostly shied away from cryptocurrency trading up to this point, but an increase in interest could go a long way in making cryptos mainstream.

Blue Line Futures president Bill Baruch, who called a bitcoin rally when the currency was trading at around $7,200 back in February, now says the current rally has more room to run. Baruch said bitcoin’s resiliency in the face of ongoing regulatory threats is a bullish sign, and a breach of the $10,000 level would likely send the price to $11,500.

With bitcoin prices now at their highest levels since March at above $9,200, former Intuit Inc. INTU and Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL CEO Bill Harris wrote an op-ed piece for Recode in which he called bitcoin “the greatest scam in history.” Harris said cryptocurrencies are massive pump-and-dump schemes and fraud artists are taking advantage of cryptocurrency investors naivety and greed. He added that bitcoin has no intrinsic value, isn't an effective store of value and isn't accepted by the vast majority of businesses, making it virtually useless as a means of payment.

Price Action

The Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC traded at $16.55, up 8.8 percent.

Here’s how several top crypto investments fared Monday. Prices are as of 3:30 p.m. ET and reflect the previous 24 hours.

• Bitcoin gained 5.5 percent to $9,376;
• Ethereum gained 10.1 percent to $703;
• Ripple gained 6.7 percent to 92 cents;
• Bitcoin Cash gained 6.1 percent to $1,466;
• EOS gained 28.6 percent to $14.78.

The three cryptocurrencies with at least $1-million market caps that have made the biggest gains over the past 24 hours are:

• Unitus: $3.6-million market cap, 73.0-percent gain.
• Bela: $6.6-million market cap, 68.5-percent gain.
• FlappyCoin: $2.1-million market cap, 67.1-percent gain.

The three cryptocurrencies hit hardest in the past 24 hours were:

• GPU Coin: $1.9-million market cap, 29.5-percent loss.
• BuzzCoin: $3.6-million market cap, 29.3-percent loss.
• Vsync: $2.2-million market cap, 25.4-percent loss.

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