Investing.com - Top cryptocurrencies rallied on Thursday morning in Asia, with Bitcoin continued its way up to reach the $9,300 level. The total crypto market cap amounted to $290 billion.
Bitcoin rose 1.83% to $9,154.5 by 12:15 AM ET (04:15 GMT). The coin went higher this morning from the $9,200 range.
Sharing the same momentum, Ethereum edged up 0.18% to $266.28, XRP added 1.09% to $0.43361, and Litecoin was up 0.79% to $135.939.
Social media giant Facebook’s crypto project Libra has been the talk in the crypto community. The project is spearheading as the Banking Committee of the U.S. Senate will hear testimony on it on July 16.
Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, requested earlier this week that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) halt development of its new cryptocurrency until lawmakers and regulators have properly reviewed the project.
The hearing is entitled "Examining Facebook's Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations." According to Facebook, its global stablecoin, known as “libra,” will operate on the native and scalable Libra blockchain, and be backed by a reserve of assets ostensibly “designed to give it intrinsic value” and mitigate volatility fluctuations.
“[Facebook] has made quite broad rounds around the world with regulators, supervisors and lots of people to discuss their plans and that certainly includes us,” said Jerome Powell, the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Other countries are also paying attention to Facebook’s Libra coin.
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy and Finance in France, said that the French government intends to “ask for guarantees” from Facebook in regard to Libra. Meanwhile, Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Market, said Russia would not legalize the use of Libra.