New Delhi: The cumulative market capitalisation of over 13,800 cryptocurrencies Tuesday crossed the market capitalisation of $3 trillion for the first time as the market leader Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) and several others showed strong growth.
At the start of the month, the combined market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies was $2.6 trillion and within 9 days the market capitalisation has appreciated by more than 15% and if one looks at the growth in the last 30 days then it has jumped from $2.32 trillion to $3 trillion, a growth of nearly 30%.
Despite regulatory hurdles and other things, the growth and investment in cryptocurrency has grown over the years. The market capitalisation was just $440 billion a year ago on November 10 last year.
In one year, the market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has grown by nearly 6 times.
Bitcoin at a record high
The world’s most well-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Tuesday touched an all-time high of over $68,327, surpassing its earlier record of over $67,000 that it has crossed on October 20.
The bellwether cryptocurrency, which came into existence eight years ago in 2013, has risen by over 420% in the last one year, from over $13,000 in October 2020 to $68,000 on November 9.
While Bitcoin was trading at around $66,779 Tuesday evening, Ethereum was trading at $4,794 and Litecoin was trading at $264.
In February this year, Bitcoin’s market capitalisation topped $1 trillion mark for the first time before it came down. However, early last month, the world’s oldest crypto currency again crossed the market capitalisation of $1 trillion and on Tuesday its market capitalisation was over $1.26 trillion, accounting for over 40% of the cumulative market capitalisation of all the cryptocurrencies in circulation.
Reasons behind steady growth
The unprecedented growth in cryptocurrencies is fuelled by a variety of reasons as it received support from celebrity entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk who backed cryptocurrencies and started accepting payment for Tesla electric cars in cryptocurrencies.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Musk’s has been a well-known cryptocurrency supporter. He had previously announced that Tesla would accept Bitcoin for its famed electric cars and later changed the decision. However, the billionaire investor, in June had said that Tesla may resume Bitcoin transactions that led to a strong rally in Bitcoin prices.
Last month, Musk clarified in a tweet that he holds only three cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and DogeCoin (DOGE). In addition to support from celebrities like Elon Musk, the cryptocurrency prices have gone up in crypto exchanges following the listing of the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) that is based on Bitcoin futures.
ProShares Bitcoin Strategy Fund (BITO) listed on the New York Stock Exchange on October 19 recorded a trading volume of over $900 million. It became the second most traded ETF on the first trading day after BlackRock’s Carbon fund. It also became the first fund to have more than $1 billion assets under management (AUM) within two days of the launch.
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