Bitcoin’s winning streak continues

Bitcoin’s price hovered around $72,000 on Tuesday, extending a rally that has helped generate a new crop of crypto billionaires.

The cryptocurrency has risen more than 50 percent since the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January, bringing a wave of mainstream investors into the crypto business.

Coinbase, a Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange, has seen its shares rise alongside Bitcoin this year. The company is pushing for more favorable treatment from regulators. sue the SEC and accuses it of ‘erratic’ behavior. It said in its lawsuit that the agency has shirked its responsibility to write clear rules on how the industry should operate.

Tough tactics have worked before. Grayscale Investments, a digital asset manager, sued the SEC last year after the regulator rejected its application for an exchange-traded Bitcoin fund. A panel of judges agreed that the agency acted arbitrarily, a ruling that paved the way for January’s approval of new Bitcoin funds.

The industry is also flexing its political power. Coinbase and others backed a network of well-funded political action committees that some believe played a role representative of the fierce party Katie PorterCalifornia Democrat, a crypto skeptic who lost her race to run for the party’s Senate.

The sector is now looking at new targets to boost or overturn this. “The crypto advocacy community is feeling pretty good right now,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a trade group. “For the first time since Bitcoin was created 15 years ago, we have the tools, both policy and political.”

The industry got another shot in the arm Monday when Travis Hill, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, called on regulators to ease restrictions on how banks handle customers’ digital assets.