Cryptocurrency Prices Spike in Response to BlackRock Involvement

A co-author of What You Don’t Know About Retirement Will Hurt You!, Robert M. Ryerson is a certified financial planner (CFP) and certified identity theft risk management specialist (CITRMS). In addition to providing clients with financial advice as a CFP at New Century Planning in Freehold, New Jersey, Robert M. Ryerson hosts seminars and presentations about such topics as cryptocurrency.

On July 16, 2018, the cryptocurrency market saw a sudden spike in price for the three top digital assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. These three assets increased in trading value by about 4.5 percent. The new trading value of Bitcoin was raised to $6,631.70; meanwhile, Ethereum’s trading value increase to $476.81, and Ripple’s value increased to just under $0.50. An increase in trading value was also noted for Litecoin. This asset rose about 7.09 percent to trade for about $83.

These rapid increases are supposedly the result of  BlackRock ’s interest in the cryptocurrency market. The 10th largest hedge fund in the world, BlackRock is also responsible for managing upwards of $6 trillion. According to sources, the fund developed a department dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. While this department was formed in 2015, the recent series of large-scale hacks caused investor confidence to drop, thus giving it a chance to increase again based on the news that BlackRock is interested in the industry.

This high level of volatility in the cryptocurrency market isn’t new and is responsible for keeping people’s confidence in the industry low. However, many experts expect this to change as more institutional investors become interested in cryptocurrency.