Crypto Market Briefly Surpasses $1 Trillion as Adoption Keeps Growing
CryptoCompare data shows the price of Bitcoin (BTC) moved up from around $30,000 at the start of the week to hit a new all-time high near $42,000 before enduring a steep correction. BTC is now trading close to $36,000.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, moved from $780 to $1,300, a value close to its near $1,400 all-time high, before dropping along with BTC. Ether is now changing hands at $1,100.
This week the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies briefly surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time ever, with bitcoin leading the charge. At the time BTC was trading above $37,000 and had a market capitalization of $690 billion, representing about 69% of the crypto market’s value.
The price of BTC kept on rising to get to a new all-time high, before the crypto market endured a correction over the weekend, which saw its total market capitalization drop to $970 million, with BTC currently representing 68.7% of the market.
Bitcoin’s price rise is seemingly being supported by growing corporate adoption. The hedge fund investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, Skybridge Capital, has confirmed the launch of its new bitcoin fund and revealed its exposure to the flagship cryptocurrency has now reached $310 million.
Ray Nolte, the firm’s co-chief investment officer, said in the press release that with “global money printing at an all-time high, bitcoin offers a strong alternative to gold as a store of value and hedge against future inflation.”
A team of J.P. Morgan global market strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a managing director at the financial giant, wrote in a note to clients that over the long term, bitcoin’s price could get to $146,000 and higher. The strategists’ predictions were by some criticized for being conservative.
The price boom in the cryptocurrency space started in December, and CryptoCompare’s Exchange Review for that month reveals that crypto derivatives trading volumes hit a new all-time high that month, of $1.43 trillion.
It adds that while derivatives surged to a new all-time high, they rose 8.6% compared to November. Spot trading volumes, over the same period, increased by 30% to $1.19 trillion. Binance was the leading exchange when it comes to derivatives, and was followed by OKEx and Huobi.
This week, bitcoin hit another milestone, as a total of $10 trillion in value changed hands through the Bitcoin network since it was launched back in 2009. About $7.5 billion were moved since 2018 after its price surged to nearly $20,000 in late 2017.
A gradual increase in trading volume has also contributed to the rise in value settled on-chain, with more and more users learning about BTC as time goes by and using the cryptocurrency’s blockchain. In late 2017, it’s worth noting, bitcoin’s price hit $19,000 and the total transfer volume gained a boost.
The world’s first actively managed cryptocurrency exchange-traded product (ETP), the 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP (BTCA), received this week regulatory approval to expand across Europe. The ETP has seen its assets under management increase to surpass $5 million since launch, and had has a performance of “nearly 60%” since launch.
Ripple Tried to Settle With SEC Ahead of Lawsuit, CEO Says
The CEO of Ripple Labs, Brag Garlinghouse, revealed that the firm attempted to settle changes of conducting unregistered securities transactions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before the lawsuit was announced.
While Garlinghouse revealed what he could say was limited as the case is ongoing, pointed out Ripple “tried “and “will continue to try [with] the new administration” to resolve the issue. The lawsuit saw the SEC allege Ripple, Garlinghouse, and its Chairman Chris Larsen sold $1.3 billion worth of XRP in unregistered securities sales.
The lawsuit saw the price of the XRP token plunge from about $0.60 to a low of $0.18. The price has since then recovered to over $0.3 as some companies like crypto exchange Uphold revealed they will not delist XRP until the lawsuit is resolved.
In an announcement, Uphold pointed out that the SEC’s goal is to protect consumers, and believes it’s hard to see “how a judgement rendering XRP essentially worthless and inflicting billions of dollars of losses on retail investors” would square with that goal
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various Cryptocurrencies but has no bias in his writing.
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