Cryptocurrency market cap hits $3 trillion as Ethereum, Bitcoin soar

The cryptocurrency market cap is now worth more than $3 trillion as Ether and Bitcoin soared. The little more than a decade old market for digital assets has already roughly quadrupled from its 2020 year-end value, as investors have gotten more comfortable with established tokens such as Bitcoin and networks like Ethereum and Solana continue to upgrade and attract new functionality. Excitement about the possibilities of decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens is growing, and memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu continue to attract attention.

“Bitcoin appears to be pushing out of a bullish flag pattern, and Ether is likely to confirm a long-term breakout on a close above resistance this Friday,” said Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, in a note.

As of 9:54 a.m. in New York, the overall market cap of cryptocurrencies hit $3.3 trillion, according to CoinGecko pricing. The third- and fourth-biggest tokens, Binance Coin and Solana, have added more than 20% in the past seven days; all of the seven biggest coins are up over the last week.

Bitcoin rose as much as 5.6% on Monday to $66,414, nearing its previous record of about $67,000. Ether advanced as much as 3% to a new high of $4,768. 

Crypto companies such as miners Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. and Riot Blockchain Inc. each rallied more than 10% Monday. Coinbase Global Inc., the largest U.S. exchange, gained as much as 3.6%, a day before reporting third-quarter results. 

Of course, crypto is notoriously volatile. The last time Bitcoin reached these levels, it fell back several thousand dollars, and it’s undergone multiple corrections that take it down by half or more. Other coins are even more volatile -- the memecoins bounce back and forth wildly at times -- and scams and hacks occur with some frequency.

Bitcoin’s current rally has been fueled by the U.S. trading debut of a Bitcoin-linked ETF as well as Elon Musk’s weekend Twitter poll, said Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at crypto exchange AAX. “With Shiba and other memecoins having surged recently, and Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, interest in altcoins continues to rise.”