The total value of all cryptocurrencies hit a new all-time high.
The market rocketed almost 8% to a peak of about $3.12 trillion, according to data from CoinGecko.
That outstrips the market’s last peak in November 2021, when the total value of all cryptocurrencies reached almost $3.07 trillion.
The crypto rally follows a Republican sweep in the US elections.
Donald Trump, who’s called himself the “crypto president,” won back the White House, the Senate flipped back to the GOP, and the House of Representatives looks poised to stay under Republican control.
Since polls closed last week, the S&P 500 has gained almost 4%.
“What we just saw is the traditional finance market waking up all at once,” Tom Dunleavy, a partner at MV Global who leads asset strategy for the crypto investment firm, told DL News.
Bitcoin’s price has soared 25% over the past seven days to hover above $86,000. And the price of Ether has leapt even higher, jumping 33% to now just under $3,260.
“The bull market is back,” Iliya Kalchev, an analyst for crypto lender and exchange Nexo, told DL News.
Institutional interest
Kalchev partly attributed the crypto market’s recent tear to the influx of institutional investment.
US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw $3.1 billion in inflows since November 6, according to SoSo Value.
“As we edge closer to $100,000, the market is likely to see increasing interest from both retail and institutional investors,” Kalchev added, in reference to Bitcoin’s price.
In November 2021, at the market’s last all-time high, Bitcoin’s total value comprised around 40% of the entire crypto market’s value, according to CoinGecko.
Now, it constitutes more than 50%.
“Unlike the bull markets of 2017 and 2021, it’s Bitcoin leading the way,” Shunyet Jan, head of derivatives and institutional at crypto exchange Bybit, told DL News.
FOMO
But, Kalchev said that, while it’s tempting to attribute the crypto market’s surge solely to Bitcoin, he said he believes it’s an outgrowth of the post-Trump bump.
“Ultimately, this rally seems to stem from a market-wide optimism that’s taken hold since the US presidential election,” he said.
And, he added, the record-breaking surge of the world’s largest cryptocurrency “could also encourage capital rotation into other major assets, like Ethereum and Solana.”
Petr Kozyakov, co-founder and CEO of Mercuryo, a crypto payments platform, said that the driver is even simpler: the fear of missing out.
“The cryptocurrency market is engulfed by wave after wave of FOMO as Bitcoin seemingly charts an inexorable path towards $100,000,” he told DL News.
Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai Correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.
