Wednesday, July 31 — crypto markets are seeing widespread green, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking back above $9,700 and many large market cap altcoins seeing solid gains of between 3 and 9% on the day.

Market visualization. Source: Coin360

Despite trading in a lower price range since dropping back to a four-figure price point in a recent corrections, BTC is today up a solid 2.4%, bringing it to $9,717 by press time.

This mild uptick nonetheless stops short of bringing the coin back into the green on its 7-day chart, where Bitcoin is still reporting a fractional 0.7% loss. On the month, losses are starker, topping 8%.

Yesterday, Peter Tchir — a former Executive Director at German multinational investment bank Deutsche Bank — argued that Bitcoin is an indicator of hidden geopolitical tensions, pointing to the coin’s momentous performance this May at a time of fraught trade talks between the United States and China.

Also this week, erstwhile Bitcoin bear and CNBC host Joe Kernen predicted that the top coin could hit $55,000 — a 500%+ price surge — by the time of its next halving in May 2020.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Top altcoin Ether (ETH) — which celebrated its fourth birthday yesterday — has posted a 1.9% gain to trade around $212 by press time. In corrections earlier this week, the coin had circled perilously close to the round $200 mark, but has since recovered ground and is just slightly in the red, at 2.2%, on its 7-day chart. On the month, however, Ether is down over 18%.

Ether 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

XRP is reporting a 2.7% gain on the day, while among the remaining top ten coins several alts are seeing stronger upward momentum: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is posting a 7.5% gain on the day, Litecoin (LTC) is up 3.6% and Binance Coin (BNB) is up 4.1%.

In the context of top twenty coins, Tezos (XTZ) is outstripping all other assets, seeing a 24% gain on the day following news of the token’s listing on major United States crypto exchange Coinbase. At press time, XTZ is trading at $1.24

Tezos 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Still among the top twenty, strong gains are being reported by Chainlink (LINK) — up over 9% — as well as by NEO (NEO), IOTA (MIOTA) and Cosmos (ATOM), all of which are up by 4-5%.

Total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies is at $261,434,827,781 at press time, according to Coin360 data.

Dominating the crypto headlines this week is the hearing devoted to examining regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and blockchain held at the United States Senate Banking Committee. Cointelegraph reported live on the most important developments during the hearing as it unfolded.

Yesterday’s Committee hearing notably follows upon earlier hearings in mid-July that had examined the regulatory hurdles surrounding Facebook’s Libra.