A new record high was reached just before Christmas, as the Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap reached over $618 Billion USD.
Today, that record was smashed as the cap reached above $700 Billion this morning, and is now at $739 Billion, at press-time. That means that the market gained $39 Billion dollars in just a couple of hours.
Source: Coin Market Cap
Lately, the large market growth can be contributed to the rise of aLTCoins. Since its debut on Wall Street, in the form of futures, the demand for Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) (BTC) has substantially subsided. Just before Christmas, it was selling at just under $12,000 a coin, down almost $8,000 from its record high set on December 17th, at just over $20,000. Currently, the cryptocurrency is selling at $15,251.40 a coin, up 1.58 percent on the day.
Just recently, news broke that Peter Thiel’s Silicon Valley based venture capital firm invested in Bitcoin (available on Coinbase), which coincided with an increase in the current selling price of Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) over the $15,000 threshold.
Source: Coin Market Cap
As you can tell by the graph above, the majority of the market cap dominance has been from Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) throughout most of the year. Back in the end of June, both Ethereum (available on Coinbase) and Ripple (available on Binance) experienced a significant rally. None have surpassed Bitcoin (available on Coinbase)’s market cap yet, but Ripple (available on Binance) has been making a serious attempt lately.
Currently, Ripple (available on Binance) is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, passing Ethereum (available on Coinbase) last week and at press-time, is at $125 Billion, selling at $3.24 a coin, up 30.84% for the day. It currently has the largest shot at passing Bitcoin (available on Coinbase), as it only needs to grow $131 Billion if Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) doesn’t make any sort of large gains until then.
The third largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (available on Coinbase), has just broken its record high passing the $950 mark and up 7% for the day. Its current market cap is $92.8 billion USD.
With aLTCoins on the rise, Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) developers better think fast before the long-time crypto giant gets usurped.
Featured Image: depositphotos/WVDZ