The bitcoin price surpassed $8,000 for the first time on Friday, racing past another checkpoint that few non-devotees believed it could ever reach. This bullish trend generally extended throughout the altcoin markets, too, enabling the crypto market cap to set another all-time high.
The combined value of all cryptocurrencies had begun the day at $221.2 billion, and bitcoin’s rally enabled it to pad its weight by $7 billion, bringing it to a present mark of $228.2 billion. Since last Friday, the crypto market cap has grown by more than $28 billion, which, incidentally, was the size of the entire crypto market cap as recently as April 11.
Bitcoin Price Touches $8,000
At this time last week, the bitcoin price was in freefall following the apparent cancellation of the controversial SegWit2x hard fork. Bitcoin would ultimately drop below the $6,000 mark on November 12, leading advocates for a surging bitcoin cash to declare an early victory over the flagship cryptocurrency.
What a difference five days can make. Since Sunday, the bitcoin price has not only recovered from this pullback but has also initiated yet another record-setting rally. Early Friday morning, the global average bitcoin price touched the $8,000 mark, setting a new all-time high. Bitcoin has since made a slight dip, but it continues to trade above $7,800. Bitcoin now has a market cap of $130.3 billion, raising its total valuation above that of energy giant BP.
The rally has also enabled bitcoin to increase its dominant share of the total crypto market cap to 57% — a roughly 10% increase since November 12.
Ethereum Price Stagnant Near $330
The ethereum price had mounted a moderate rally earlier in the week, but it has been unable to regain its forward momentum after falling into decline on Thursday. Today, the ethereum price remained stagnant at $331 and thus maintained a market cap of $31.7 billion. Ethereum now accounts for less than 14% of the total crypto market cap.
Altcoins Post Moderate Gains
The altcoin markets returned moderate gains on average, although a few top-tier coins followed ethereum’s example and dug in at their previous-day levels.
The bitcoin cash price returned a 6% day-over-day increase after briefly dipping below $900. This progress was somewhat-surprising, especially given that the bitcoin and bitcoin cash prices have generally had an inverted relationship in recent days. Nevertheless, the bitcoin cash price rose to $1,111, bringing its market cap to a present value of $18.7 billion.
The ripple price was technically stable today, but this 24-hour snapshot masks the significant advance it posted following yesterday’s early-morning announcement that fintech startup Ripple had entered into a partnership with credit card giant American Express to process international payments using Ripple’s real-time payments network.
The litecoin price rose 6%, in part because developers at Lightning Labs successfully processed an off-chain atomic swap between bitcoin and litecoin using testnet coins. Litecoin is currently trading at $68. Dash remained stable at $417, while IOTA leaped yet another 10% to bring it closer to supplanting dash in the rankings. Rounding out the top 10, neither NEO, monero, nor NEM made significant movement, enabling each cryptocurrency to more or less hold at its previous day level.