Investing.com - Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies continued to see a double-digit advance without a clear directional mover on Wednesday morning in Asia.
The crypto market cap headed higher to $176 billion and pushed Bitcoin past $4,900 to test the $5,000 level.
Bitcoin surged 16.79% to $4,919.6 by 12:47 AM ET (04:47 GMT), reaching the highest level since November. The coin even briefly topped $5,000 on Wednesday morning.
Ethereum rose 17.91% to $165.9, XRP gained 12.45% to $0.35038, and Litecoin soared 26.73% to $79.402.
The crypto market has been relatively calm since the beginning of this year, with Bitcoin hovering between $3,000 and $4,000.
It is not immediately known what caused the digital coins to surge. Bloomberg said an April Fool’s Day joke on a news site claiming the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds could be a reason behind the Bitcoin price rally.
The wild price movement has again proven that Bitcoin is highly speculative. Jehan Chu, managing partner at blockchain investment and advisory firm Kenetic Capital, told Bloomberg that the crypto market remains “emotional” in general.
“It’s still very much subject to waves of enthusiasm,” he said.
Reuters, on the other hand, cited an analyst that the wild price swing could have been triggered by an anonymous buyer’s order, which was worth about $100 million spread across three crypto exchanges, namely Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp.
“There has been a single order that has been algorithmically-managed across three venues, of around 20,000 Bitcoin,” Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, chief executive of cryptocurrency firm BCB Group, told Reuters.
While traders are still struggling to pinpoint the trigger for the price rally, more news on regulation came into the spotlight.
The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has greenlighted the first 14 crypto assets agents. The approval arrived five months after the implementation of the Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) Act, which regulates the registration of whitepapers by issuers of VFA, VFA service providers and VFA agents.
“These agents are required to evaluate their clients’ business plans and fitness and properness prior to submitting an application to the MFSA. The VFA agents are also subject persons under the Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations,” the MFSA said.