Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies overall traded higher on Friday with bitcoin rallying for a third straight session and commentators questioning its capability to continue up to the $11,000 handle.
Total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased to $288.41 billion by 12:04 PM ET (16:04 GMT), compared to $284.20 billion a day earlier.
Bitcoin, the largest alt coin by market cap, rose 5.9% to $10.641.1 on the Investing.com Index.
Its closest rivals traded mixed as Ethereum gained 2.8% to $219.12, XRP was little changed at $0.31324, Litecoin traded down 0.7% to $96.983, while Bitcoin Cash advanced 1.0% to $328.67.
Those who support the argument for cryptocurrencies as a safe haven asset would point to escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China as an explanation for the upward move.
Beijing pledged on Friday to retaliate if the U.S. moves forward with extra tariffs on the remainder of Chinese imports.
U.S. President Donald Trump vowed a day earlier to place a 10% tariff on a further $300 billion in Chinese goods starting on Sept. 1 if suitable progress in negotiations was not made.
In other crypto news, Comparitech released a study that suggested that bullish sentiment on the sector was on the rise.
The technology research firm analyzed 48,000 Reddit posts and found that 86% of online crypto discussions view the digital currencies in a positive light.
The study also found however that media articles were overwhelming negative with nearly twice as many as positive articles.