BITCOINs rise back above $7,500 for the first time in a month has been met with suspicion from American economist Nouriel Roubini who claims that price manipulation triggered the 10 percent price spike in just 30 minutes.

Bitcoin had a strong breakout yesterday jumping 10 percent in just 30 minutes, reaching a high of $7,523.

The cryptocurrency failed to settle above the $7,500 mark as the day progressed but King of Crypto Barry Silbert said signs are "starting to look pretty good" for bitcoin.

Speaking to CNBC, Mr Silbert said: "A lot of people were looking for the bottom, a lot of institutional money looking with dry power looking for an opportunity to go in and I think the bears just ran out energy, ran out of bitcoin to sell.

"I think from a technical perspective its starting to look pretty good. When the chair of the FED says negative things about bitcoin, and Howard Marx says negative things about bitcoin, and bitcoin doesnt move I think thats a really bullish sign."

BTC is trading at $7,418.91 as of 12 pm BST on July 20.

The rest of the market also saw significant gains because of bitcoins unexpected price growth, with Ethereum trading for $461, Ripple for $0.46, and Litecoin for $85.37, according to Coindesk.

As a result of the near $600 price jump, bitcoin added some $9 billion to its market cap in a matter of minutes.

But Bitcoin prices are expected to take another hit today as the US Congress issues its judgement on whether the cryptocurrency and its peers can be categorised as real money and be regulated like traditional currencies.

Congress is set to "evaluate the merits of any uses by central banks of cryptocurrencies, and discuss the future of both cryptocurrencies and physical cash."

Guy Hirsch, US Managing Director of eToro, told Express.co.uk that todays hearings are a great step in the right direction."

He said: "We encourage regulators to hear more from good actors and companies with an international presence since they would be valuable to this discussion in Congress.

"Cryptocurrencies are by design global assets and companies with a global perspective are uniquely positioned to help regulators better understand the diverse regulatory approaches and best practices.

"Any law that Congress will pass affecting cryptocurrencies will have a global impact on foreign companies that are doing business in the US or want to enter the US market and therefore it is important for US lawmakers to facilitate dialogue with other nations on this matter."

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/991139/Bitcoin-price-BTC-cryptocurrency-latest-Barry-Silbert-BTC-USD-money-Congress-news