Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies traded higher overall Wednesday, with the 10 largest alt coins registering gains, although bitcoin was still on track for its first monthly loss since January amid the volatility typical of the largest digital coin.
Total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased to $272.17 billion by 9:37 AM ET (13:37 GMT), compared to $267.33 billion a day earlier.
Bitcoin, the largest alt coin by market cap, rose 2.5% to $9,870.4 on the Investing.com Index.
The largest crypto by market cap was on track to record a loss of nearly 9% in July, its first monthly decline since January.
The drop came after a bullish June that saw bitcoin jump 26% to its 2019 highs near $14,000.
Although still a far cry from nearly $20,000 at the height of the 2017 crypto frenzy, bitcoin has surged 166% from around $3,700 at the beginning of the year.
In other cryptocurrency news, Tuesday’s congressional hearing, entitled “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain”, did little to move markets.
Michael Crapo, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, did say however that the U.S. would likely be unable to ban decentralized cryptocurrencies.
Jeremy Allaire - chief executive of cryptocurrency trading and investment firm Circle and one of the three witnesses called to testify at the congressional hearing - said that the government would create the appropriate regulation to allow cryptos to remain in the U.S.
Allaire told Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday that the U.S. would ultimately need to enact legislation to avoid companies taking crypto projects elsewhere where digital currencies have been accepted.
In other rumors hitting the wires, Chinese bitcoin miner Canaan Creative was said to have already filed a $200 million initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to speculation reported by CoinTelegraph.
In other cryptocurrency trading, Ethereum rose 3.0% to $214.87by 9:42 AM ET (13:42 GMT), XRP gained 1.6% to $0.32158, Litecoin traded up 6.3% to $96.133, while Bitcoin Cash advanced 6.0% to $333.47.