Cryptocurrencies gained for a third day with many of the leading digital currencies flirting with monthly highs on news of Australia’s first A$ stable coin.
Bitcoin climbed 2.3% to US$43,074. Closest rival by market value Ethereum rose 3% to US$3,040 as it looked to cement itself back above the key US$3,000 resistance level.
The world’s second-largest crypto was at its highest level since 16 February – before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, "Big 4 bank ANZ has become the first Australian bank to mint an Australia dollar (AUD) pegged stable coin named 'A$DC,'” Ryan McCall, ZeroCap chief executive said, while rival bank NAB said it expected to launch a similar product before end-2022.
There was some modest optimism in the digital currency world with 80 of the top 100 trading in positive territory on Thursday morning.
Cardano and Solana surged 17% and 7% respectively, while doggy-meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu increased 11% and 6%.
Outside of the top 20, Near Protocol, Decentraland and ApeCoin advanced 11%, 7% and 20% respectively.
Those who bucked the trend in the fallers department experienced much less volatile changes.
Only Ethereum Classic and Neo, down 6% and 2% respectively, fell by more than 1%.