NEW DELHI: Total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies regained the $2 trillion mark on Friday, for the first time since 19 May, driven by a surge in major altcoins such as Ether, Cardano and Binance coin.
Meanwhile, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, also traded near its three-month high. At 0140pm, the digital asset was 2% higher at $46,150, as per CoinGecko. Bitcoin is still 28% lower from its all-time high of $64,804.72, which was hit on 14 April.
Notably, altcoins have put up a better show than bitcoin in the recent past. Over the past week, ether is up 13.6%, cardano is up 42% and Binance coin is up 19% against 12% rise in bitcoin.
Altcoins is a cumulative term to define cryptocurrencies that came after Bitcoin.
“The recent upward price rush of most crypto assets took place on the backdrop of multiple developments, including Ethereum’s London Fork, which is in line with moving Ethereum’s consensus algorithm to proof of stake (PoS) from the existing proof of work (PoW). In India, we are seeing an increased number of new user registrations on our platform,” said Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber.
A major technical upgrade was deployed on the Ethereum network last week. Called ‘The London Upgrade’ or ‘EIP -1559’, new protocols went live at around 06.30pm on Thursday last week.
The upgrade is expected to have a positive impact on investors as it is expected to bring in a lot of transparency in terms of transaction fees on the Ethereum network.
Over the past one week, Ether’s market capitalization has increased by $55 billion to around $380 billion and Bitcoin’s by $95 billion to over $860 billion.
According to experts, the crypto market’s soaring trade volumes are also a sign of bullish sentiment. Total cryptocurrency trading volume on Thursday was at $134 billion compared with less than $100 billion last week.
“The surge in the crypto market cap indicates wider acceptance of crypto assets across the globe. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency, bitcoin has witnessed a fantastic rally recently and the latest Ethereum upgrade, also known as London Hard Fork, has boosted the Ether price,” said Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin.
“Crypto assets are moving towards becoming mainstream, with many brands around the world accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. The current bull run is expected to continue, and we are highly optimistic that bitcoin will hit the $100,000 mark by the end of this year,” said Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin,” he added.
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