DUBAI, RIYADH: The second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, Ethereum, recorded gains early on Thursday as investors anticipate a major upgrade that is aimed to improve and optimize the digital currency.

Its price was up by around 8 percent over the last 24 hours, according to Forbes.

Ether traded at $2,687.71 at 5 p.m. Riyadh time on Thursday, according to data from Coindesk.

Bitcoin traded lower, falling by 2.78  percent to $38,035.85.

In other developments, a report by Pymnts and Bitpay showed consumers in the US are increasingly interested in using cryptocurrencies for their payments.

“The report analyzes a census-balanced survey of 8,008 US consumers who were current and former cryptocurrency owners and cryptocurrency nonowners between Feb. 8 and Feb. 23, 2021,” the report said, cited by Bitcoin.com.

It found that 93 percent of crypto users would consider making purchases using cryptocurrency, while 59 percent of non-crypto owners said they are interested in using it for their purchases in the future.

In Europe, French asset manager Melanion Capital received regulatory approval to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking bitcoin price for investors across the region.

Another act to regulate the industry is from a senator in Uruguay who introduced a bill to allow businesses to accept cryptocurrencies as payments.

The bill will provide “legal, financial and fiscal security in the business derived from the production and commercialization” of crypto, CoinDesk has reported.

JP Morgan has launched an in-house bitcoin fund, and has begun pitching it to private bank clients.

Google’s new ad policy for financial products and services has gone into effect – and it allows some crypto ads.

In the East, Hong Kong is seeing a rise in crypto-related crimes, according to Bitcoin.com, with authorities saying it could be due to the increasing popularity of crypto investments.

But in China, a global leader in the crypto scene, these crimes have decreased significantly in recent years.