What just happened? Cryptocurrency’s two largest players, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have seen a slight rebound in recent days that has helped push the total market cap of crypto above $1 trillion, albeit only briefly. But while that milestone is $40 billion away at the time of writing, the vast majority of digital assets have soared in the past seven days.
The past few weeks have not been kind to crypto. In May, Bitcoin crashed to its lowest level since 2020, wiping $1 trillion from the markets, which was followed by the freezing of withdrawals by Celsius lending platform due to “extreme market conditions”.
The price of Ether has risen in the past week
But crypto has recently experienced a mini-turn. At the time of writing, Bitcoin stands at $21,407 while Ether, which hovered around $880 on June 18, is at $1,227. Those numbers are still about 30% lower than at the start of this month and a fraction of their prices in November last year, but investors will be happy to see the number one and number two cryptos moving in the right direction.
Looking at the top 100 cryptocurrencies show a similar story over the past seven days. Most are up, with Dogecoin up nearly 30% from a week ago, a boost likely aided by Elon Musk who says he will continue to support and buy Doge despite the $258 billion lawsuit filed against him and his companies.
Coinmarketcap still has the global crypto market cap of less than $1 trillion – $960 billion – but that could change again if the upward trends continue.
The collapse of TerraUSD and support currency Luna, along with rising inflation, have contributed to the recent decline in crypto prices. We’ll have to wait and see if they’ve weathered the storm and continue to climb or if this is just temporary relief for another fall.
Masthead Credit: Art Rachen
