Bitcoin bounced higher on Wednesday evening UK time after US president Joe Biden stated he was close to reaching a deal with Republican leaders to ward off a potentially catastrophic debt default.
Markets have been anxious that the US government’s US$31.tn debt ceiling was close to being breached, yet partisans on both sides of the bench have been unable to reach a consensus on how to tackle the crisis.
But Biden said he is now “confident” a deal can be reached and passed by the first of June.
With a shot of confidence in the markets, BTC/USDT ripped to an intraday high of US$27,500 before correcting back to US$27,400 by the session’s close.
The pair has since moved back to US$27,220 this morning.
Bitcoin hits the breaks on volatility – Source: currency.com
Ethereum (ETH) didn’t benefit quite as much from the Biden bounce, closing Wednesday a few basis points lower at US$1,822 before inching close to US$1,830 this morning.
Spot prices for both ether and bitcoin appear to be levelling out following a period of heightened volatility, though a notable lack of liquidity in the markets remains a significant risk factor.
Both are also in the red week on week, while other blue-chip altcoins have begun outpacing them
Litecoin (LTC) is particularly strong, adding nearly 16% week on week as it continues to gain traction in anticipation for the next halving event on 2 August.
Ripple (XRP), whose developer Ripple Labs just bought Switzerland-based crypto custody firm Metaco for US$250mln, has also surged ahead with 5% gains, while BNB, Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC) are all in the green.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation added half a percent overnight not US$1.13tn, while total value locked in the decentralised finance space added 0.2% to hit above US$47bn.
