The bitcoin price rallied past $18,000 on Friday as traders rolled their altcoins profits back into the flagship cryptocurrency. Many top-tier coins, including ethereum, experienced price declines, causing them to lose part of the market share that they had fought to recoup during bitcoin’s mid-week slump.
But although the markets were mixed, strong performances from bitcoin, ripple, and one other top-tier altcoin lifted the cryptocurrency market cap by $19 billion, raising it to a new height of $530 billion.
Though not a milestone in and of itself, achieving the $530 billion mark was significant for another reason. Wall Street strategist Tom Lee attributes this year’s massive bitcoin price increase to the “network effect,” so it is fitting that the combined value of all cryptocurrencies has now surpassed the market cap of the most popular social network: Facebook.
Bitcoin Price Rallies Past $18,000
Though the majority of cryptocurrencies posted single-day declines on Friday, the bitcoin price rallied more than eight percent, enabling the dominant cryptocurrency to crack the $18,000 mark and inch closer to its all-time high. At present, the bitcoin price is trading at a global average of $18,134, which translates into a $303.6 billion market cap.
Ethereum Price Sees Post-Surge Stumble
That rally came, to some extent, at the expense of altcoins that had been on a mid-week surge. The ethereum price, for instance, had leaped to a new all-time high of $752, and many investors began to believe that $1,000 was on the horizon. However, the ethereum price experienced a 10 percent correction on Friday, reducing the second-largest cryptocurrency to a present value of $653. This translates into a $63 billion market cap.
Altcoins Skew Negative
The altcoin markets were mixed on Friday with a handful of cryptocurrencies posting significant increases but the majority engaging in a retreat. On the whole, the altcoin market cap dropped to $227 billion — a single-day decline of $6 billion.
The ripple price was one of the few altcoins to defy the prevailing trend. Bolstered by increased interest among Asian traders, the ripple price soared to a new all-time high of $0.892, although it has since settled down to $0.758. This nevertheless represents a single-day rally of 33 percent, and, significantly, enables ripple to command the third-largest market cap.
To achieve that status, ripple surpassed two coins that had made mid-week rallies: bitcoin cash and litecoin. Both of these cryptocurrencies, now ranked fourth and fifth, posted single-day declines of 12 percent. IOTA and dash, meanwhile, each saw its price fall by six percent.
Aside from ripple, cardano was the only other top 10 altcoin to yield investors a meaningful increase. The cardano price soared by 45 percent, catapulting this cryptocurrency into the eighth spot in the market cap rankings.
NEM posted a minor increase of three percent, and bitcoin gold took a 12 percent hit to round out the top 10.