Cryptos Turns Bullish; Bitcoin Nears One Month High

Investing.com – and other virtual coins surged on Friday as investors flock back as U.S. tax pressure eased and Santander (MC:) launched an international blockchain payment service.

Bitcoin was trading at $8,192.00, gaining 5.74% as of 9:19 AM ET (13:19 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange. Despite the surge, the virtual currency is far from its peak of $20,000 in December 2017 and has struggled to recover since falling below $6,000 in February.

Some analysts speculate the higher move is due to investors shorting Bitcoin, who were forced to buy back in.

“Analysts consider that there is a positive feeling among traders for the past few days which could open room for higher grounds. We see the case for bitcoin to continue to rise, as long as positive headlines reel in,” Peter Iosif, a senior research analyst at IronFX, wrote in a client note.

Others claim the increase in prices was due to a tax-related pressures in the U.S. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers cryptocurrency a property, meaning the transactions are taxable. The U.S. tax deadline is April 17 and analysts expect the pressure to lighten before and after the deadline.

Meanwhile, Spanish banking giant Santander launched an international payment service based on blockchain technology, launching in the U.K., Brazil and Poland. The system will use distributed ledger technology developed by .

Other virtual currencies were up, with rival , the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, up 12.07%% to $525.98 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, increased 18.10% to $0.68150 while was at $133.15 a rise of 7.72%.

The total market cap of cryptocurrencies rose to about $329 billion, at the time of writing, from about $297 billion on Thursday, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

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