Tezos leads crypto top 10 with 7 percent surge

Tezos (XTZ)—the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap—today spiked by as much as 12 percent, trading for nearly $3.25 per token.

At the moment, Tezos is trading for right around $3.15, 7 percent gain day over day, which is still enough to lead the top 10 coins by market cap in terms of daily gains.

The price jump comes follows a good day for Bitcoin, which today jumped past the $9,000 per coin mark, seemingly sparked by news that South Korea had passed new legislation that adds clarity to regulations regarding cryptocurrency in the country.

Previously, Tezos had dropped as low as $1.20 in December, and things didn’t pick up again until early February. Even still, all in all, Tezos investors are still up more than 1,000 percent since the end of 2018.

The entire crypto market appeared to move today on news that South Korea passed the “Special Financial Information Law.” The new law requires all crypto exchanges to comply with regulations set forth by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

In addition, crypto trading platforms in South Korea will need to gain approval from both the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Korea Internet & Security Agency before they can offer their services and products to clients.

The law is being viewed by crypto startups in the region as a big step in helping mature the industry, which may help to explain the positive response from the market.