Cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin near $50,000; ether, dogecoin surge 10%. Latest rates

Cryptocurrency prices today surged with Bitcoin trading near $50,000, days after it broke back above the psychologically important mark last month for the first time in three months. The world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization jumped 6% to $49,678.59, as per CoinDesk. Bitcoin prices are up 71% this year (year-to-date), though, far away from its record just below $65,000 in April. 

Ether, the coin linked to ethereum blockchain and the second largest crypto, rallied over 9% to 3,769.62 Meanwhile, dogecoin prices gained 10% to $0.30, whereas, Cardano was up 8% at $2.98. Other cryptocurrencies like XRP, Stellar, Uniswap, Litecoin also surged in the range of 5-10% over the last 24 hours.

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance's founder and chief executive officer Changpeng Zhao said that its US arm could have an initial public offering in the next three years, The Information reported on Wednesday. "Binance.US is just going to do what Coinbase did," Zhao said, according to the report.

Meanwhile, investors continued to pour into digital funds based on altcoins, such as ether and cardano, even as bitcoin funds logged their eighth straight week of outflows last week, digital asset manager CoinShares said. Altcoins is a cumulative term to define cryptocurrencies that came after bitcoin.

Bitcoin hit a record of almost $65,000 in April, driven by a tide of liquidity, fast-money bets and optimism about growing demand from institutional investors. Supportive views from billionaire Elon Musk and the direct listing of digital-currency platform Coinbase Global Inc. also fueled optimism.

(With inputs from agencies)