Investing.com – Bitcoin rose on Thursday as the popular digital currency eyed a sustained move above $11,000.
The move higher comes as bitcoin looked to test price levels – between $11,000 and $12,000 – that has recently acted as technical resistance – trading levels that trigger selling.
The leg up seen Thursday was supported by an uptick in demand despite data showing that the total cryptomarket cap remained well below recent levels, suggesting that new traders were reluctant to buy into this latest move, choosing rather to remain on the side lines.
The total cryptomarket rose to about $460 billion, from nearly $450 billion Wednesday but remained below the $510 billion seen last week, when bitcoin rallied to a more than three-week high of $11,766 on the bitfinex exchange.
On the bitfinex exchange, Bitcoin rose 3.38% to $10,883, while Ethereum rose 0.26% to $867.45. Despite the wild swings seen in February, bitcoin posted a gain of 0.36% last month, while Ethereum fell 24%.
Ripple’s XRP rose 1.31% to $0.91181 amid signs of ongoing interest in its platform after Chinese payment provider LianLian joined RippleNet. LianLian is said to process billions in payments between merchants, including major online retailers like eBay, Amazon and Ali Express, and consumers.
Litecoin rose 1.20% to $210.30. The cryptocurrency has garnered much attention of late after a recent split or “fork,” in its blockchain led to creation of Litcoin Cash.