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Digital currencies were largely unchanged Friday, continuing the directionless trend of the past 72 hours.
The world’s No. 1 digital currency, bitcoin continues to hover around the $7,500 level, last trading at $7,561.90, up 0.3% since Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange.
The extent of the recent lull is evident in the overnight range, which, as of early New York trading was less than $200.
High net worth piling into cryptos
The calm is a welcome relief to those hoping for mainstream adoption of digital assets citing excess volatility as a basis for the lack of institutional money. However, that trend is starting to shift, according to one consulting firm.
DeVere Group, a financial consulting firm, recently said it added Bitcoin Cash and EOS to its platform because of growing demand from high net worth individuals.
“This mainstream expansion is clearly evidenced by the fact that more than a third [35%] of wealthy individuals around the world—who are already likely to be successful investors—are telling us that they already have exposure to crypto or that they will have by the end of this year,” wrote Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group.
“The survey’s findings demonstrate that high net worth individuals are increasingly unable to ignore the huge potential of cryptocurrencies.”
Altcoins and futures off to a slow start
Altcoins, or coins other than bitcoin, are also off to a quiet start in New York. Ether was up 0.5% to $582.00, Bitcoin Cash was unchanged at $999.10, Litecoin added 0.4% at $119.76, and Ripple’s XRP coin is up 0.6% at 62 cents.
Bitcoin futures too are off to a muted start. The Cboe June contract is unchanged at $7,555, while the CME June contract is down 0.1% at $7,535.