A resurgence for bitcoin and Ethereum has propelled the overall value of the crypto market to new heights.
At the time of writing, the market cap of the global digital asset market now sits at over $3 trillion, according to CoinGecko data.
This represents a fourfold increase on the aggregate value of the sector at the start of 2021, with over $1 trillion in value added across the last two months.
A 3.6 per cent surge over the last 24 hours pushed the crypto market past the $3 trillion milestone, with bitcoin and Ethereum continuing to lead the way when it comes to value.
“Bitcoin appears to be pushing out of a bullish flag pattern, and ether is likely to confirm a long-term breakout on a close above resistance this Friday,” Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton said.
At the time of writing, the price of the world’s most well-known cryptocurrency sits at approximately $66,565 per unit.
eToro market analyst Simon Peters said that bitcoin is still the king of cryptoland, accounting for 42 per cent of the market.
"The milestone is the highest point since May this year when markets raised above $2.6 trillion and underscores the positive outlook of investors as institutional players enter the market through instruments such as futures ETFs," he said.
Ethereum remains in second place, at a high of $4,794 per unit and a market cap of $565 billion.
As the world’s most popular cryptocurrency closed in on a new all-time high earlier this week, deVere CEO Nigel Green predicted that cryptocurrencies with links to fintech development like Solana and Cardano would be the biggest beneficiaries of this phenomenon.
“Bitcoin is just the start of the fintech revolution which is redefining and reshaping the way that all financial services are delivered,” he said.
Binance’s BNB token has held its own so far as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap at $109 billion. However, Solana’s SOL token is closing that gap at $74 billion. Both grew more than 20 per cent in value over the last week.
While the crypto crashes of April and May are still in the rearview mirror, the sector’s recent upswing aligns with growing adoption by institutional investors, the approval of crypto ETFs by regulators and broader interest in the NFTs.
According to Kraken’s latest Market Recap and Outlook report, all sectors and large-cap crypto assets (with the exception of ADA) finished up at least 20 per cent in October due to the combination of lacklustre September and a rebound by bitcoin.
“After having returned to levels not seen since April and pressing up to a new all-time high, it comes as no surprise that market participants opted to rotate out of large-cap altcoins, like ETH and into BTC,” the report said.
Kraken’s analysis noted that this return to prior all-time highs comes amid renewed optimism following the approval of the very first BTC ETF in the US.
According to Mr Green, the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin by global regulators meant that the approval of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is only a matter of time.
“A US-based spot bitcoin ETF would give the sector an unseen level of legitimacy and act as the ultimate tipping point for the market as it will allow corporates to buy and sell quickly and have direct exposure to the crypto itself, unlike with a futures-based ETF,” he predicted.
Speaking to InvestorDaily, Kraken Australia Managing director Jonathan Miller said that the recent strengths of cryptocurrency market are a positive sign in its journey towards global adoption.
"The latest leg of this rally began in anticipation of the BITO ETF and seems to now be fueled by the sustained inflation that we are witnessing across all the world's major economies, the reaction to which by Central Banks is to merely taper their purchases of government bonds ie. slow down the rate at which monetary easing is occurring, not to stop it," he explained.
"This has led to further interest in Bitcoin - an asset that has scarcity and a fixed supply of only 21 million in total," Mr Miller added.
