Investing.com – Cryptocurrencies’ prices jumped on Friday, while Bitcoin surged to a two-week high.
Bitcoin was trading at $7,868.5 by 10:50PM ET (02:50GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 12.0% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, jumped 12.2% at $492.2 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token surged 15.0% to $0.62521 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin added 7.4% to $126.6.
Although there were no obvious directional drivers behind the move, some said the surge in crypto prices were supported by news that Spanish banking giant Santander launched an international payment service based on blockchain technology.
Reports on Friday suggested that Santander (MC:SAN) would roll out its cross-border payments system “One Pay FX” in Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland. The system was said to use distributed ledger technology developed by Ripple.
The move by the Spanish bank restored hopes that the digital ledger technology that powers cryptos, including Bitcoin, still has a role to play in the mainstream payments space.
Meanwhile, comments by the Pantera Capital Management, one of the world’s biggest Crypto hedge funds, received some attention as it said Bitcoin has bottomed out and will stay above the $6,500 level for the majority of 2018.