Bitcoin prices traded higher on Thursday after three days of losses.
Bitcoin was trading at $9,318.9 by 11:43AM ET (03:43 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 1.9% over the previous 24 hours.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was up 2.8% at $754.10 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple’s XRP token was 1.8% lower at $0.79176 on the Poloniex exchange.
Meanwhile, Litecoin slipped 0.2% to $159.04.
The cryptocurrency markets were under pressured since the beginning of the week after Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett called Bitcoin “rat poison” and that the “asset itself is creating nothing”.
Co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates echoed Buffet’s comment and said he would bet against Bitcoin if he could.
Reports that Nasdaq chief executive Adena Friedman is bullish on cryptocurrency received some attention on Thursday.
In an interview with CNN, Friedman said that cryptocurrency feels like the “right next step in the space of currency” because a “globalized payment mechanism is a natural fit for the cross-border digital economy.”
“How it evolves and which of the cryptocurrencies may or may not be the one that ultimately gets embraced, I think that really the jury is still out on that. But I do think the idea of a more globalized payment mechanism that is more efficient than what we have today allows for money to transfer across countries and certainly supports the Internet economy.”
Friedman then noted that she believes blockchain technology will first take place gradually in markets with less regulation or high levels of inefficiency before being adopted in the global financial system.
“The first uses of the blockchain will be in the less regulated markets, less efficient markets, more bespoke markets. Test it out, show that it works, demonstrate the efficiency in the Nasdaq private market or in the fund industry,” Friedman said. “It takes a village to make it work, but people are going to be highly motivated if we show that the use cases bring a lot of efficiency.”
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