A girl poses for a photograph on a stone sphere monument that unidentified persons have painted with the white Bitcoin cryptocurrency symbol in Oktyabrskaya Square, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Bitcoin continued to edge higher on Tuesday, extending gains made on the previous day on news that asset-management giant BlackRock has set up a working group to look into cryptocurrencies and blockchain, the technology that underpins them.

The world’s most valuable virtual currency by market value was trading higher by more than 5 percent compared to where prices were on Monday, at around $6,720.84 as of 10:32 a.m. HK/SIN, according to industry website CoinDesk, which tracks prices from several exchanges.

The prices of ethereum and ripple, the second- and third-largest digital assets by market capitalization respectively, also tracked slightly higher. Ethereum was up by more than 6 percent, while ripple was around 6 percent higher compared to levels seen one day ago, as of 10:35 a.m. HK/SIN.

London’s Financial News first reported the story. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink later confirmed the report in an interview with Reuters. “We are a big student of blockchain,” Fink said. He added, however, he does not see "huge demand for cryptocurrencies."

In an earlier interview with Bloomberg, Fink said: "I don’t believe any client has sought out crypto exposure."

Fink has previously railed against bitcoin, calling it an “index of money laundering.”