Bitcoin pumps over $9,000 after South Korea exchange legislation

Bitcoin (BTC) has just retaken the $9,000 price point after surging by four percent in the last day. As it stands, Bitcoin now sits just above $9,100, after reaching as high as $9,137 earlier today.

Despite fluctuating between $8,500 and $8,900 for the last week, Bitcoin saw a bullish break last night, and spiked from around $8,700 to over $9,000 in a matter of hours. Overall, more than $6 billion was added to Bitcoin's market capitalization since yesterday, bringing its total to more than $166 billion today—a value last seen towards the end of February.

Despite this bullish price action, Bitcoin has seen its daily trade volume gradually diminish in recent weeks, falling from a peak of more than $52 billion changing hands every day on February 28, down to just $39 billion today—a reduction of 25%. Nonetheless, according to BitcoinWisdom's aggregate heatmap, a strong buy wall has formed around the $9,070 price point, indicating Bitcoin is unlikely to reverse course in the short-term.

Bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency that is strongly in the green today. as practically every other major cryptocurrency is also doing well. In total, the global market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies swelled to more than $260 billion today following the news that South Korea had passed new legislation that requires crypto exchanges operating in the country to comply with FATF guidelines.