Investing.com – Bitcoin rose on Monday as focus shifted to the annual blockchain conference, Consensus, to gauge sentiment on cryptocurrencies from some of most well-known crypto participants in the industry.
Bitcoin rose 1.53% to $8,833.4 on the Bitfinex exchange after hitting a session low of 8,271.0.
The move off the lows in bitcoin comes despite a host of crypto participants at the Consensus conference calling for a faster pace of U.S. regulation on cryptocurrencies to ease the regulatory uncertainty preventing startups from launching in the United States.
"The faster the SEC moves, the faster it will be for businesses to stay in the United States," said ConsenSys founding managing partner Kavita Gupta, according to Coindesk.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a few months ago that it would take a closer look at crypto-trading platforms offering “exchange-like” services.
Ahead of the Consensus conference, some market participants had claimed that the conference would provide the platform for bitcoin to stage a sharp rally as attendance was expected to more than double, compared to a year ago.
“Bottom line: We expect BTC and cryptocurrencies to behave similarly to prior years and rally during Consensus,” said Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors.
The negative sentiment on cryptocurrencies following the selloff last week has eased somewhat as the total crypto market cap rose above $400 billion, helping to steady other large-cap cryptos.
Ripple XRP fell 0.36% to $0.74050 the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum rose 0.60% to $738.28.
Bitcoin Cash fell 1.87% to $1,449.30 while Litecoin rose 4.10% to $151.24.