Investing.com - Bitcoin renewed its bid to mount a sustained surge above the $8,000 handle on Tuesday, shrugging off a widely-expected delay by U.S. authorities on a bitcoin fund that many believe has the potential to be a game changer for the crypto industry.
Bitcoin was up 2.90% to $7,987.6 from a session low of $7,680 after hitting a high of $8,112 earlier.
The Security and Exchange Commission put out a call for public comment and delayed a decision on the proposed rule changes that would allow an exchanged traded bitcoin fund, or ETF, proposed by investment management firm VanEck to trade on the CBOE exchange to Aug. 19.
The move was widely expected, with some suggesting that the U.S. financial watchdog is still in the "information gathering" stage. They also believe the commission will continue to delay making a decision on approving or denying a bitcoin EFT.
"The SEC is in information gathering mode. Technically, there are deadlines, but it’s the SEC, they can do what they want. They can kick this can down the road," Dave Nadig, managing director of ETF.com, told CNBC.
Still, traders appear willing to back the popular crypto as its market cap has continued to edge higher, rising to $141.4 billion, up from $124.7 billion at its lows seen after the slump last week. Some attributed the resilience in bitcoin to positioning ahead of the next "halvening," which will see the amount that bitcoin miners receive halve to 6.25 BTC from the current 12.5 BTC, reducing the total supply in the market.
Other cryptos followed bitcoin higher, with XRP rising 3.23% to $0.39673, Ethereum up 4.46% to $255.35 and Litecoin adding 2.62% to $92.08.