Following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement to the US Congress that the crypto industry “appears to have some staying power”, Bitcoin (BTC) breached the $30,000 mark for the first time since April.

BTC witnessed a surge of $40 billion in its market capitalisation over the last 24 hours, gaining more than 10%. Bitcoin gained over 21%, and Ethereum rose 16.82% last week. Smaller coins like Cardano, Dogecoin, Solana and Litecoin also posted gains.

The rally in the crypto markets comes after several Traditional Finance (TradFi) giants, including BlackRock, Invesco and WisdomTree, filed for spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) applications. Further, the EDX crypto exchange, backed by Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities, launched on Tuesday and will offer four tokens in the US.

Powell said in his statement, “We do see payment stablecoins as a form of money, and in all advanced economies, the ultimate source of credibility in money is the central bank”. He added, “We believe it would be appropriate to have quite a robust federal role,” while addressing the twice-yearly hearing on monetary policy.

These developments, it seems, have calmed investors’ anxiety caused by the SEC’s crackdown against exchange operators Binance and Coinbase.