Investing.com - Prices of the major cryptocurrencies edged up on Thursday in Asia amid a lack of directional drivers. Reports that CoinMarketCap will launch two cryptoucurrency benchmark indices received some attention.
Bitcoin gained 0.8% to $5,241.6 by 2:06 AM ET (06:06 GMT). Ethereum traded 3.2% higher to $171.02, XRP edged up 1.8% to $0.33850 and Litecoin was up 1.0% to $80.572.
CoinMarketCap is launching two cryptocurrency benchmark indices on NASDAQ GIDS, Bloomberg Terminals, Thomson Reuters Eikon (Refinitiv), and Börse Stuttgart, according to various media earlier this week, which added that the two indices will cover the top 200 cryptocurrencies.
“We are excited to launch and share these indices with the market. These indices will promote greater accessibility to cryptocurrency data in an easier-to-digest format. In partnership with Solactive, our chosen index administrator, we hope these professionally-calculated indices will serve to expand the reach of cryptocurrencies into the larger financial markets,” said Brandon Chez, CEO of CoinMarketCap.
In other news, major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has expanded its crypto-to-crypto trading to 11 more countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia, according to its blog post on Tuesday.
It was reported earlier this week that the exchange are forming a partnership with Visa (NYSE:V) to launch a cryptocurrency card that allows card holders to “spend crypto as effortlessly as the money in their bank,” as well as ATM withdrawals to replace the traditional time-consuming crypto-to-fiat withdrawal process that often takes over 24 hours to complete.