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- The market value of cryptocurrencies surpassed $ 1 trillion on Thursday, after Bitcoin hit a record high above $ 37,000.
- The entire cryptocurrency market is now worth about half what Apple is and more than the entire economy of Switzerland.
- Rival token Ethereum hit its highest level in two years, above $ 1,200, while smaller altcoins, including XRP, also soared.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
The cryptocurrency market is now worth nearly half that of Apple, the world’s most valuable company, after the price of Bitcoin soared above $ 37,000, bringing the total market capitalization to more than $ 1 trillion. Dollars.
Bitcoin, which has risen nearly 400% in the past 12 months, traded at an all-time high of $ 37,823 on the Coinbase platform on Thursday, thanks to an almost relentless momentum in cryptocurrencies that has raised the value of all traded currencies. to more than $ 1 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
This means that the entire cryptocurrency market is now worth half that of Apple, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, which was worth $ 2 trillion at last count.
Cryptocurrencies are also worth more than the entire Swiss economy, home to some of the world’s largest financial institutions and the largest gold vaults.
“Bitcoin has continued to break trees, metaphorically speaking, hitting a new record high of $ 37,000,” CMC Markets chief strategist Michael Hewson said in a daily note.
The drivers of the rally are investors’ desire to seek a decentralized alternative asset not linked to any central bank, whose actions can degrade the value of a traditional currency, as has been the case of the US dollar with the zero of the Federal Reserve . – Interest rate policy and trillions of dollars in stimulus over the last year.
“With buying interest continuing to drive the market, any reversal liquidation will be seen as another opportunity to enter a market that, at the moment, is pushing relentlessly higher,” said DailyFX strategist Nick Cawley.
“As always with the crypto space, care must be taken, especially with volatility at its current extreme level,” he added.
read more A crypto CEO explains why he wouldn’t be surprised to see bitcoin and ethereum rise by at least 100% in 2021, saying the current sell-offs are ‘a very natural and healthy thing to do’
Increased transparency brought about by regulation and increasing market depth have helped cryptocurrencies shed some of its old reputation as an asset class riddled with speculation, questionable market practices, and fraud.
Big name investors such as Paul Tudor Jones, Mike Novogratz, Anthony Scaramucci have supported Bitcoin and even crypto skeptic Ray Dalio said he called it “interesting.” Payment companies like PayPal and Square allow their users to trade cryptocurrencies and a growing number of fintechs beyond the US are seeing growing interest from their customer base.
JPMorgan said on Monday that Bitcoin could eventually trade as high as $ 146,000 if investors embrace it as an alternative safe haven to gold, although it added that such a rally might not be sustainable.
read more Fintech startups like Revolut and Luno are seeing a boom in demand from consumers rushing to invest in cryptocurrencies amid heightened interest in bitcoin.
Bitcoin is already the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and the most widely used, with a current value of nearly $ 700 billion. Next up is Ethereum, which has gained 800% in value in the last year to a two-year high of $ 1,228 on Thursday on the Coinbase platform. Its market capitalization is around $ 138 billion.
Ripple Labs’ XRP has had more luck recently. US regulators recently issued a complaint against Ripple on the grounds that sales of its XRP token were not legitimate as they viewed the coin as a security and not a cryptocurrency.
Having doubled in value in just one week at the end of November, XRP lost almost half of its value a month later. Since the beginning of the month, the token has doubled in value again. XRP is up almost 30% on the day to around $ 0.328 on the Bitstamp exchange.
The smaller tokens, known as altcoins, have lived up to the rally of Bitcoin and Ethereum in the last year. Litecoin and Cardano, and so-called stablecoins, those backed by traditional coins, such as Tether, have also seen their value rise.
