The cryptocurrency market cap hit a new all-time high above $700 billion on Wednesday, bolstered by strong performances from the bitcoin price and a variety of altcoins.
Cryptocurrency Market Cap Hits $700 Billion
The cryptocurrency market cap began the day below $650 billion but rose $64 billion — or 10 percent — during the ensuing 24 hours to reach a new high-water mark of just under $709 billion. Following a minor decline, the sum total of all cryptocurrency valuations is now $702 billion.
Bitcoin Price Recovers to $15,000
The march past $700 billion was spurred by a rally in the bitcoin price, which rose as high as $15,428 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $14,932 on Bitfinex, while the global average bitcoin price was $15,093. This represents a single-day increase of eight percent and provides bitcoin with a $253.2 billion market cap.
The bullish movement came in response to a report that Founders Fund, a venture capital firm established by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was holding hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin as a hedge against overstretched tech valuations. Investors are likely optimistic that this report is indicative of a coming wave of institutional money into the cryptoasset markets.
Ripple Price Eyes $3 as Breakneck Rally Continues
Ripple, meanwhile, continued to scale the charts with little resistance. The ripple price rose 15 percent for the day, reaching $2.46 on cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex and ascending to a global average of $2.77. Ripple now has a market cap of $107.2 billion, making it just the second cryptocurrency to cross the $100 billion threshold.
Ripple’s surge came just as the markets took the wind out of ethereum’s sails. Earlier this week, the third-largest cryptocurrency appeared poised to race back ahead of ripple on the market cap charts, but the ethereum pricetraded sideways on Wednesday. At present, the ethereum price is trading at a global average of $885, which translates into an $85.7 billion market cap and places ethereum more than $21 billion behind ripple.
Altcoin Markets Ascend to New Heights
The majority of altcoins advanced against the US dollar today, raising the total altcoin market cap to a new all-time high just below $450 billion. Altcoins now account for nearly two-thirds of the cryptocurrency market cap, reducing bitcoin’s market share to just 36.2 percent.
The bitcoin cash price rose six percent to $2,774, bringing its market cap within striking distance of $50 billion. Fifth-ranked Cardano, meanwhile, rose 29 percent to lift its market cap to $25.7 billion. This is the first time that the top five cryptocurrencies have all had market caps exceeding $25 billion.Litecoin was the largest coin to post a single-day decline, falling three percent to $252. It briefly dipped to seventh in the rankings, falling behind stellar’s lumens, but it had recovered to sixth by the time of writing.That said, the stellar price is on a tear this week, and it rose 35 percent on Wednesday to post the best single-day performance of any top 10 cryptocurrency. Stellar now has a market cap of $13.6 billion, which is all the more impressive considering that XLM is largely absent from the major South Korean market.
Eighth-ranked NEM rallied by 18 percent, bringing its price to $1.32 and market cap to $11.9 billion. Aside from litecoin, IOTA was the only top 10 cryptocurrency to decline for the day, dipping three percent to $4.06. Dash, on the other hand, rounded out the top 10 with a three percent increase to $1,177.Write to Josiah Wilmoth at josiah.wilmoth(at)ccn.com.