Bitcoin Briefly Hits Monthly High Above $4,100, British Pound Marks 31-Year Low

Friday, March 29 — Bitcoin (BTC) has hit a monthly high of $4,112 today, while top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are trading sideways.

Many of the top 20 coins are in red at press time, with Maker (MKR) seeing the biggest losses of almost 5 percent, while Tezos (XTZ) rallied over 15 percent over the past 24 hours.

Market visualization from Coin360

The biggest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has hit a multi-week high of $4,112 earlier today, continuing a moderate growth over the day. Bitcoin is up around 0.3 percent at press time, trading at $4,099.

The major crypto was trading below $4,100 mark after Feb. 24 when total market cap suddenly dropped from $144 billion to as low as $127 billion. Bitcoin is up around 1.5 percent over the past 7 days.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up 0.66 percent over the day, trading at $140.88. The top altcoin is up more than 2 percent over the 7-day period.

Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Ripple (XRP), the third top cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 0.6 percent, trading at $0.308. Over the past 7 days, the coin is down around 1.42 percent.

Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Total market capitalization reached $143 billion for the first time since Feb. 24 after dropping to $141 billion earlier on the day. Daily trade volume amounts to around $35 billion at press time.

Total market capitalization 30-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Recently, the Canadian town of Innisfil launched a pilot program to enable residents to pay property taxes with cryptocurrencies.

Earlier today, Cointelegraph reported that Argentina’s Deputy Minister of Finance claimed that adoption of crypto and blockchain will help promote Argentina’s financial inclusion and reduce state costs.

Meanwhile, the British pound (GBP) hit a 31-year low against the dollar yesterday as investors bet Britain’s vote to leave the European Union will trigger a Bank of England rate cut.

The United States stock market rose today amid renewed anticipation on the progress of trade talks between Washington and Beijing as Wall Street concluded a stellar quarterly performance, according to CNBC. At press time, all three indices, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (NASDAQ) Composite, are up about 0.6 percent.

Oil prices are seeing mixed signals, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil and Brent crude rising 1.5 and 0.7 percent, respectively. The OPEC basket dropped more than 1.1 percent at press time.

Gold prices saw the biggest monthly decline since August as stronger dollar and equities pressured the market, CNBC reports. While spot gold rose 0.2 percent to $1,298 per ounce, it dropped yesterday by around 1.5 percent, which is the most in more than seven months and breaking below key support around $1,300.

Meanwhile, spot palladium rose from two-month lows touched in the last session, up about 1.7 percent at press time. Recently, Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin revealed plans to launch a crypto token backed by palladium.