The price of bitcoin surged Tuesday after presentations by U.S. regulators at a Senate hearing on cryptocurrencies delivered no surprises.

Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Senate banking committee that they needed new powers to protect consumers from fraud on cryptocurrency exchanges. But they primarily focused on initial coin offerings.

“Many ICOs are being conducted illegally,” Clayton is reported to have told the committee. “Their promoters and other participants are not following our security laws. Some people say that’s because the law isn’t clear. I do not buy that for a moment.”

Confirming action already taken by the SEC, Clayton went on to note that the commission is constantly monitoring the market. “Those who engage in semantic gymnastics or elaborate structuring exercises in an effort to avoid having a coin be a security are squarely in the crosshairs of our enforcement provision,” he noted.

The hearing revealed what some describe as a remarkable level of knowledge by its participants. Senator Mike Crapo, the Republican chairman of the panel, noted that “between the enforcement actions brought by your agencies, the hack of the international Coincheck exchange … there is no shortage of examples that increase investor concerns.”

As attorney Stephen Palley told Coindesk,”It’s amazing that nine years after the Satoshi white paper, you’ve got senators talking about this shit and not pooh-poohing it.” He was referring to the original paper by a person identifying himself as Satoshi Nakamoto that outlined how bitcoin would work.

Whether the lack of surprises at the hearing can be attributed to a turn in the market alone is subject to argument. But whatever the cause, buyers entered the cryptocurrency market once bitcoin dropped briefly below $6,000. As of 12 a.m. EST Wednesday, bitcoin was trading at $7,494.22, up a healthy 24 percent.

Buyers didn’t limit themselves to bitcoin alone, with most major cryptocurrencies seeing a recovery as well. Ethereum trading at $756.95, up from a 24-hour low of $574.42, while Ripple XRP was trading at 74 cents, up from a low of 60 cents.

Disclosure: The author is currently #HODL on a small amount of Ripple XRP. 

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