Investing.com - Bitcoin held its grip above $5,500 on Tuesday morning in Asia while other major cryptocurrencies traded lower without a clear directional mover.
Bitcoin continued to gain momentum to rise 3.09% to $5,523.3 by 12:12 AM ET (04:12 GMT). Over the past seven days it has added 6.42%, outperforming the other major digital tokens.
However, Ethereum slid 1.47% to $168.22, XRP shed 1.70% to $0.31779 and Litecoin lost 5.61% to $72.456.
The crypto market cap remained at $181 billion.
Japanese telecom giant SoftBank’s founder Masayoshi Son reportedly lost over $130 million with his Bitcoin investment, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report garnered some attention among the crypto traders.
The report said that Son bought the digital coin in late 2017 when it reached an all-time high at $20,000. He lost a fortune when he sold the coin in early 2018 after the price plummeted.
The report also suggested that Son decided to invest in Bitcoin at the recommendation of Peter Briger, the co-chairman of asset management company Fortress Investment Group.
SoftBank is actively exploring the potential of the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies. Last September, the company was reportedly developing a blockchain-powered cross-carrier mobile payments service.
In other news, an analyst said that Nasdaq is testing trading of a Bitcoin-based product. Even though Nasdaq has not made any official statement yet, the news caught a lot of attention among the crypto investors on Tuesday morning.
In a tweet, the analyst said he bought one Bitcoin on retail brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. The digital coin was found trading against the U.S. dollar under the unknown symbol “CXERX,” which is purportedly listed on the Nasdaq. He also claimed that the BTC/USD pair was launched on April 10, 2019.
Nasdaq has been tapping into the crypto space. In late 2018, it reportedly confirmed its plans to launch Bitcoin futures in the first half of 2019. In February, it started listing two crypto price indices from U.S. blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin, namely Bitcoin Liquid Index and Ethereum Liquid Index.