The value of the digital currency market exceeded the $2 trillion level for the first time Tuesday, sparked by a rally in ether, the second-biggest crypto coin in circulation.
The market cap of the cryptocurrency market has grown two-fold in just two months, based on the price monitoring websites CoinGecko and Blockfolio, as retail and institutional investors flock to space.
Hinged on the $1 trillion market cap
The rally was led by bitcoin (BTC), which reached its own milestone by remaining in a $1 trillion market cap for seven days. BTC was last up 1.5% at $59,045. Since notching a new high of more than $61,000 in mid-March, the crypto has changed hands in a relatively narrow range.
The so-called “alternative cryptocurrencies,” also known as altcoins, include ether (ETH) along with xrp (XRP), BitTorrent (BTT), stellar (XLM) and Tron (TRX). They have all registered double-digit percentage growth in the past 24 hours, figures by Messari show.
“It’s a risk-on day, and an environment where people are willing to take on risk helps the cryptocurrencies,” Reuters quoted Chuck Carlson, Horizon Investment Services chief executive officer, as saying.
BTC rallies more than 100% this year
Bitcoin, the largest and most sought-after cryptocurrency, accounts for more than half of the entire virtual asset market valuation. BTC has advanced more than 100% so far in 2021, and that has helped propel the cryptocurrency market higher.
Market observers say as long as bitcoin keeps its position above $53,000, it will be able to maintain its $1 trillion market value. Ethereum was up 1.3% at $2,103. Its market cap was $244 billion as of Monday. The token reached a record high of $2,144.98 last Friday.
CoinDesk Research chief of data and indexes Galen Moore wrote in an analysis that the outstanding performance during the latest “altcoin season” has emerged from digital tokens that belong to so-called smart-contract platforms that could rival Ethereum or complement it.
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