Bitcoin climbs to its highest value in almost two weeks

Powell said in testimony before Congress that the Fed has no intention of banning cryptocurrencies. The answer came in response to a question from House Representative Ted Budd.

Some analysts also said that October is typically a bullish month for digital assets, with September historically being a bearish period for the sector.

“The digital asset market benefits from both the seasonality effect and generally positive market fundamentals,” said Ulrik K.Lykke, founder of crypto asset hedge fund ARK36.

"Q4 has often shown strong performances and the expectation that the trend will continue this year may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is possible that we will see new all-time highs in Q4, particularly that on-chain data, particularly in the case of Bitcoin, suggests a potential for a strong bull market continuation.

He also cited Powell's comments on Thursday as a factor in Bitcoin's positive price movement.

The biggest Cryptocurrency had recently risen by almost 9% to $47,742 and reached a high of just under $48,000. If gains are maintained, Bitcoin would be on track to post its biggest daily percentage gain since mid-June.

Smaller coins Ether and XRP, which tend to move in parallel with Bitcoin, rose nearly 10% to 3,294% and 8.2%, respectively, to $1.0299.

Joseph Edwards, head of research at Enigma Securities in London, also cited rising volumes on crypto derivatives exchanges as a possible driver for the moves. Derivatives trading often influences spot prices in Bitcoin markets.

You can find an overview of all of today's economic events in ourEconomic calendar.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Tom Wilson in London; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee and Chizu Nomiyama)