Investing.com - Major cryptocurrencies reversed losses to gains on Thursday morning in Asia.
Bitcoin rose 1.10% to $8,680.4 by 01:00 AM ET (05:00 AM GMT). The highest point the digital coin reached this morning was $8,706.9. Bitcoin has held well above $8,000 since May 27, the strongest momentum since the beginning of this year.
Ethereum added 5.85% to $284.04, XRP gained 4.01% to $0.45616, and Litecoin was up 4.04% to $117.2.
The total market cap went up to $278.9 billion from $271.4 billion the previous day.
A major story overnight was a report released by U.S. think tank the Congressional Research Service (CRS) that called Bitcoin a speculative investment tool but not money.
Called “The Potential Decline of Cash Usage and Related Implications”, the report predicts less paper money will be used in the future as contactless card payments are prevailing. Researchers also mentioned cryptocurrency in the report.
“Although price data on Bitcoin illustrates the public interest in and overall demand for this cryptocurrency, it is a poor indicator of how often it is being exchanged for goods and services (i.e., how often it is being used as money),” the report read.
“Certain analyses appear to show that digital currencies are not being widely used and accepted as payment for goods and services, but rather as investment vehicles,” it added.
In other words, the CRS suggests that cash is being replaced by other traditional financial payment systems but not by cryptocurrencies.
The CRS works exclusively for the U.S. Congress to provide policy and legal analysis, regardless of party affiliation.
Despite so, the fintech community is promoting the use of cryptocurrency.
Integrated with Telegram, Button Wallet is a platform for sending/storing crypto payments through the popular messaging app. Its 100,000 users can buy cryptocurrency with U.S. dollars.
“For mass-market adoption of decentralized banking, you need more people,” said Rachael McCrary, COO at Button Wallet. “You need to make it easier for people to buy in.”