Ahead of former US President and Republican nominee Donald Trump's speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville on Saturday, cryptocurrency markets were trading higher on Friday.
At 12:30 am IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading 4.3% higher at $67,060, while Ethereum surged over 3% to $3,265. Meanwhile, the global cryptocurrency market cap rallied by 3.53% to around $2.4 trillion in the last 24 hours.
Trump, who once called cryptocurrency a "scam" in 2021, is now headlining one of the industry's biggest conferences. He will speak on Saturday, the last day of the three-day Bitcoin 2024 convention in Nashville.
Trump's appearance at Bitcoin 2024 marks his latest show of support for the industry. Last month, he met with bitcoin mining companies at his Mar-a-Lago resort and indicated he would like to see more bitcoin mining by US firms.
Meanwhile, the rally in the blue-chip crypto tokens also came after the US economic data from overnight gave some cause for optimism, with economic growth faster than expected in the second quarter and inflation cooling. That helped dispel worries that the expansion was in danger of an abrupt end, while also supporting wagers for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in September.
"Bitcoin rebounded above $67,000 following strong U.S. economic data for the second quarter. Positive sentiment was further fueled by VanEck's projection that BTC's price could reach $2.9 million by 2050," said Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex.
"Market participants are now eyeing Trump's speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville today. If Bitcoin can break through the $67,500 resistance, it might target the $68,500 level. Overall, the market sentiment remains positive," Patel added.
Other popular altcoins, such as Solana (3.2%), Dogecoin (4.1%), Toncoin (1.9%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (2.2%), Shiba Inu (3%), Polkadot (2.7%), and Chainlink (2.8%) also surged.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $74.85 billion, which is 91.15% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume, as per data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 55.24%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours rose 4% to $35.3 billion.
"BTC is slightly above $67,000, looking bullish, and could test the range high at $70-71k," said CoinDCX Research Team.
(With inputs from agencies)
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