The price of bitcoin is nearing $10,000 per coin after dropping under the psychological marker last month, climbing almost 10 percent in the last 24 hours.

The cryptocurrency’s value is up 18 percent over the last week after suffering heavy sell offs in early February.

The rally has been put down to comment made by the European Central Bank president Mario Draghi who resisted calls earlier this week to block cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

As part of the ECB’s #AskDraghi video series, the former Italian central banker said he has seen many users on Twitter ask if the ECB would regulate or even ban bitcoin.

Source: coinmarketcap.com

Draghi said:

Many of you posted questions about whether the ECB is going to ban Bitcoins or it’s going to regulate Bitcoins. I have to say it’s not the ECB’s responsibility to do that.

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The ECB chief said in September 2017, that the ECB itself has “no power” to regulate bitcoin.

Bitcoin hit a record high in mid-December as prices soared to $19,850 but have tumbled to lows of around $6,000 per coin in 2018.

Fears of increased regulation have dampened investors enthusiasm for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with South Korea recently barring people from trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies anonymously.

Meanwhile, the UK’s prime minister Theresa May has suggested the UK government may introduce similar measures and France and Germany are said to be working together on bitcoin regulation.

The US government has expressed concern over the popularity of cryptocurrencies with criminals.

The undersecretary of the US Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence this week called on the international community for stronger cryptocurrency regulations to help protect the financial system and national security.

Source: coinmarketcap.com