BTC hits 13-month high

Bitcoin was $31,180.70 as of 7:40 a.m. (EST) today, a few hours after hitting roughly $31,480, a level not seen since early June of last year.

More BlackRock news (oh, the largest money manager's top-most executive had a few nice things to say about crypto) appeared to provide a boost. BTC has gained 2.4% in 24 hours. Invalidation of bullishness could commandeer the charts within a few hours, were it the case that BTC slips below $30,200 across a four-hour candlestick, one Twitter pundit, Ali, opined as the sun came up around 5 a.m. (EST) and with a 13-month high happening.

As far as the comings/goings of other large-cap coins, look, but do not stare directly, at Solana. Because the Ethereum rival's native SOL, on earth's hottest-ever day, is scorching, relatively.

SOL gained 7.6% since this time yesterday (versus ETH, which rose 1%).

Widening out, checking on the Top 100 digital assets, per CoinGecko, based on market capitalization, we spotted Bitcoin Cash trying to climb back to $300 on the back of a double-digit percentage increase in 24 hours. Not far away, another fork/dino, Bitcoin SV, was up 9%.

And yeah, we see you, eCash, up 65% in the past seven days. Admittedly, we missed the fork-of-a-fork's salad green rampage last week at this time.

The eCash chain, formerly known as Bitcoin Cash ABC, was spawned from Bitcoin Cash, an offshoot of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash ABC's native BCHA coin was rechristened as XEC and was redenominated on a 1 to 1,000,000 ratio. As of Thursday, July 6, at 8:08 a.m. (EST), XEC stood at $0.00003790.

As of 8:09 a.m. (EST), BTC had lost its $31K handle but we'll check back on that later. We're watching Kaspa.

KAS is on the edge of a perilous overhang. If the downward trend does not reverse, KAS risks losing: its two-cent mark; the distinction of enjoying a market-cap above $400 million; and a spot in the Top 100.

KAS utterly crushed it in early April, hitting a high of around 4 cents amidst a groundswell of hype surrounding Kaspa's Web3 dApp developer friendly speediness.

The No. 98 digital asset only just recently waged a valiant battle to be 3 cents. It took place over 48 hours in the waning days of June.

KAS got to $0.0275. But KAS has since declined to $0.0207.

"It could revolutionize finance."

That's BlackRock CEO Larry Fink speaking to Fox Business yesterday about crypto.

More specifically, he meant Bitcoin. The gist of Fink's case: Yes, you could invest in gold, as a hedge against inflation, or a hedge against or the devaluation of your currency, except now there is this other thing. "Let’s be clear," Fink said. "Bitcoin is an international asset. It’s not based on any one currency and so it can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative.”

On June 16, BlackRock filed paperwork with the SEC for a spot BTC ETF to be issued/managed under the auspices of its industry dominant iShares unit (CoinDesk). BTC was hovering near $25,000 around that time. The granddaddy of digital money has since raced to a 13-month high of about $31,480. That came earlier today.

(Note: We keep checking, and BTC keeps sinking. As of 8:46 a.m. (EST), BTC was $30,600, its $31K handle in danger of disappearing from view.)

Anyhow, BlackRock has a near-perfect track record getting ETFs approved. Fink wouldn’t speculate when a decision for its BTC ETF might come.

“We hope that, like in the past, we could, working with our regulators, get the filing approved," he said. "I have no idea what that one day will be. We’ll see how that all plays out.”