Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were trading slightly higher on Tuesday, with Bitcoin rising to a one-month high.
Bitcoin rose 1.59% to $7,367.40 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:40 AM ET (12:40 GMT) as U.S. traders returned from the Labor Day holiday on Monday.
Cryptocurrencies, overall, inched up, with the coin market cap of total market capitalization at $239 billion at the time of writing compared to $235 billion on Monday.
Ethereum, the second-biggest alternative currency by market cap, rose 0.73% to $290.77 while XRP, the third-largest virtual currency, increased 0.75% to $0.33945 and Litecoin was at $68.611, surging 5.57%.
Still, virtual coins dipped steeply in August, with the market cap for all digital currencies falling to $191 billion on Aug. 14, its lowest level since early November of last year. The crypto market was under pressure last month after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its ruling on a proposed Bitcoin exchange traded fund until Sept. 30.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government remains supportive of blockchain technology, despite its efforts to block citizens from trading and using cryptocurrencies. Since 2016 China has invested about $3.6 billion in the technology behind alternative currencies, CNBC reported.
In other news, Frankfurt-based shares and securities trading company Deutsche Börse has hired a dedicated blockchain and crypto assets team. The 24 members will oversee new initiatives in the field. Investing in digital currency is one of the three areas of growth the company is pushing for until 2020.
“Looking at the pace of technological progress and the transformational potential that lies in blockchain, we probably stand at the beginning of a new era that could be disruptive for the whole industry,” said the team’s head, Jens Hachmeister. “The challenge is that we don’t exactly know where this will lead to.”