Bitcoin climbed to over USD 8,000 after comments by the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.
The price per Bitcoin was last at USD 8,089.92, up 0.5 percent on the day and off its early morning low of USD 7,972.55.
“Crypto-assets enable fast and inexpensive financial transactions, while offering some of the convenience of cash. Some payment services now make overseas transfers in a matter of hours, not days,” Lagarde wrote in a blog post on April 16.
“The underlying technology of crypto-assets—distributed ledger technology, or DLT—could help financial markets function more efficiently. Self-executing and self-enforcing ‘smart contracts’ could eliminate the need for some intermediaries,” she said.
Menwhile, the New York Attorney General sent a letter to 13 cryptocurrency exchanges seeking information to improve transparency in the digital currency industry, according to MarketWatch.