Bitcoin, ethereum rises as cryptos recover after sell-off

Bitcoin and ethereum value rose on Wednesday morning. Photo: Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images

Cryptocurrencies were broadly higher on Wednesday, recovering some of the losses made on Tuesday.

Ethereum (ETH-USD) was up 8.9%, trading at $4,309 (£3,049). It had crossed the $4,000 mark over the weekend but then slumped earlier this week, along with other cryptos, amid a sell-off.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was up about 2.5%, trading at $57,173.86.

“Ethereum’s minor retracement seems to be over again… and the price continues to move higher,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade.

Ethereum was up on Wednesday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance

Ethereum was up on Wednesday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance

Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) was up 11%, trading at $ 0.5185. It had also fallen on Tuesday, but then pared its losses as Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk asked Twitter users if they would like to be able to buy the company’s products with the joke token.

Some 3.9 million people had voted as the poll came to a close, with roughly 78% saying “yes”.

“As for dogecoin, looking at the recent poll survey on Elon Musk’s tweet, it seems like consumers will be able to buy Tesla by using dogecoin,” said Aslam.

“The massive rally in dogecoin that we have seen in the past few weeks has triggered a significant rally in other meme coins. We continue to see traders favour those coins which are under one dollar.”

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“For bitcoin, the challenge remains the same, and that is if the crypto king is going to come out of its ugly consolidation zone,” said Aslam.

He said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had “fired new fresh warnings” about the lack of regulations when it comes to bitcoin, which means investing in the crypto could be risky.

On Tuesday, the SEC said investor interested in investing in a mutual fund with exposure to the bitcoin futures market should “carefully consider the risk disclosure of the fund, the investor’s own risk tolerance, and the possibility, as with all investing, of investor loss.”

It said that investors should understand that bitcoin, including gaining exposure through the bitcoin futures market, is a “highly speculative investment.”

Earlier, Simon Peters, cryptoasset analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro, had told Yahoo Finance: “The sell-off is simply down to normal market dynamics. Inevitably when coins reach all-time highs, as ethereum has this week, there will be some investors that sell and crystalise profits.”

“Longer-term, the dynamics for many cryptoassets remain solid, with new investor groups – such as institutions – keen to get involved, favourable supply/demand dynamics, and a desire to diversify some wealth away from traditional investments.”

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