© Reuters. Bitcoin was higher on Wednesday.

Investing.com - surged to a five-week high on Wednesday, as Mastercard filed a patent to increase transaction speeds of alternative currencies.

Bitcoin was trading at $7,459.70, rising 10.16% on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:55 AM ET (12:55 GMT).

Mastercard (NYSE: ) is trying to find ways to speed up crypto transactions, according to a patent published on Tuesday.

"There is a need to improve on the storage and processing of transactions that utilize blockchain currencies," the patent stated.

"Conversely, traditional fiat payment transactions that are processed using payment networks often have processing times that are measured in nanoseconds … Therefore, many entities, particularly merchants, retailers, service providers, and other purveyors of goods and services, may be wary of accepting blockchain currency for products and participating in blockchain transactions."

The payment processing giant wants to make it easier for merchants and retailers to accept virtual coins by developing a new user account that would transfer digital currencies from one party to another using similar systems in place for fiat money.

It currently takes around 10 minutes for a blockchain-based transaction to process, compared to the nanoseconds for fiat currency to go through. If successful, it could increase crypto payments among merchants.

Cryptocurrencies overall were higher after the news. The coin market cap of total market capitalization increased to $296 billion at the time of writing compared to $269 billion on Tuesday.

rose 6.12% to $499.56 on the Bitfinex exchange. , the third-largest virtual currency, increased 8.55% to $0.51548, while was at $92.325, up 10.33%.