Bitcoin Jumps 12% as China's Xi Embraces Blockchain, Boosting Crypto Sentiment

Bitcoin prices are rebounding from a five-month low touched earlier this week.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country should seize opportunities afforded by blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin.

Despite China's ban on cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017, the comments from the leader of the world's second-largest economy could boost sentiment toward digital assets in general, providing a positive market backdrop for bitcoin, says eToro's Mati Greenspan.

Bitcoin prices shot up 12 percent Friday, climbing off a five-month low touched earlier this week, after Chinese President Xi Jinping said his countrymen should "Seize the opportunity" afforded by blockchain technology.

Although China's central bank ordered mainland-based coin exchanges to close in 2017, Xi's comments in support of enterprise blockchain, which share the distributed-ledger technology underpinning bitcoin, is good for sentiment around the crypto industry, said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at exchange eToro.

"It's bullish for the entire crypto industry, in general, when you have the leader of one of the world's largest economies coming to embrace blockchain technology like this," Greenspan said in a phone interview from Tel Aviv.

"Bitcoin as we know is a central player in the blockchain industry."

Bitcoin jumped 12 percent in the past 24 hours, reaching $8,392 as of 16:02 UTC. Earlier this week, the cryptocurrency touched $7,363, the lowest since May 18.

The Chinese president's statements on blockchain are believed to be his first in-depth remarks on the technology.

Bitcoin remains well off its 2019 high of $12,920 reached in June, though prices are still more than double where they started the year.