TOPLINE Bitcoin and ether both soared to new highs Tuesday morning, part of a wider surge in the cryptocurrency market as investors drive surges in most major tokens and push the overall crypto market above $3 trillion.
KEY FACTS
The price of bitcoin rose to $68,641 Tuesday morning, growing nearly 4% in the last 24 hours and breaking $68,000 for the first time, according to data from CoinGecko.
Ether rose by more than 2% to $4,857 early Tuesday morning, according to CoinGecko data, continuing the rally that saw it reach new highs Monday morning.
The gains come as part of a wider rally in the cryptocurrency market, which is now worth some $3.1 trillion, according to CoinGecko, the majority of which stems from bitcoin and ether.
Collectively, the two tokens are worth around 60% of the overall crypto market—bitcoin around 42% and ether around 18%—with market capitalization of around $1.3 trillion and $568 billion, respectively.
The next most-valuable token after ether, Binance Coin, has a market cap of around $109 billion, some 3.5% of overall market cap.
TANGENT
Besides bitcoin and ether, most major tokens have made impressive gains amid the wider market rally. Excluding stablecoins—which are pegged to more stable assets like the USD—seven of the top 10 digital coins by market cap have grown by double-digit percentages over the last week. Solana is up by more than 21%, according to CoinGecko, with Cardano and XRP up around 17% and 15%, respectively. Polkadot and popular meme currency dogecoin made more modest gains—5.5% and 3%—while memecoin Shiba Inu coin crashed more than 20%, the only top token to fall.
SURPRISING FACT
The price of ether, which has never before exceeded $4,800, has grown nearly 1,000% over the past year. Bitcoin is up more than 340% from this time last year, according to CoinGecko.
KEY BACKGROUND
The volatile cryptocurrency market thrived during the Covid-19 pandemic, spurred on by numerous factors including an influx of retail investors, more options to trade digital currencies and the popularity of meme stocks and tokens driven by online forums on sites like Reddit. After reaching record highs, the market crashed earlier this year following an intensifying regulatory crackdown in China, which saw cryptocurrency miners flee the country en masse, and growing concerns over bitcoin’s environmental impact. The sector has been rallying in recent weeks—including bitcoin reaching a new all-time high—amid a fervor of interest in new products like the bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
Cryptocurrencies are volatile and the market does not always move in predictable or even rational (as with some memecoins) ways. It’s possible increasing mainstream acceptance of digital tokens, low yields in investments elsewhere or new products and upgrades are driving the rally.
FURTHER READING
Ether And Bitcoin Surge Towards Record Highs As Crypto Market Passes $3 Trillion (Forbes)
Elon Musk Shows How Crypto May Start Ruining Stock Traders’ Weekends (Bloomberg)
By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff