Bitcoin, which is trading above $59,000, is leading the entire market in its rise. Result: the total capitalization of the market exceeded 2,000 billion dollars.
Where will the rise in the cryptocurrency market, also called “bull market” by crypto investors, stop? Since the start of the year, the indicators have been green, causing euphoria on the market. At 10:00 a.m. French time this Wednesday, February 28, bitcoin has just exceeded $59,000, a record since November 2021. The asset gained 5% in one day, 14% in one week and almost 40% over one month. Experts estimate that the asset could exceed its absolute record of $69,000 within a few weeks.
Bitcoin drove the entire market in its rise, notably the 10 most capitalized cryptocurrencies on the market according to Coinmarketcap. At the same time, ether is trading above $3,300, gaining 3% in one day, 13% in one week and 47% in one month. Other cryptocurrencies are also showing good performance, like Cardano, Binance Coin and Avalanche.
A level not seen since 2022
In this context, the cryptocurrency market exceeded $2,000 billion in capitalization on Tuesday, February 27. We have to go back to April 2022 to find such a level of capitalization, before the setbacks experienced by the crypto ecosystem, notably the collapse of Terra Luna and the bankruptcy of the former crypto exchange FTX. In 2020, cascading failures within the ecosystem halved the market capitalization, reaching a low of $800 billion in December 2022.
But in 2023 the market started to rise again, with bitcoin gaining 150% over the year. The surge in the cryptocurrency market in 2024 takes place in a context of euphoria a month after the introduction of bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States, financial products indexed to the prices of the queen of cryptocurrencies. An ETF (or Exchange Traded Funds) is an index fund trading on a stock exchange which follows the evolution of a stock index (or one or more financial or physical assets, such as gold) by replicating the increase as well as the drop in the price of this index (or these assets).
On January 10, the American stock market watchdog (the SEC) authorized 11 spot bitcoin ETFs, offered in particular by asset managers like Blackrock and Fidelity. Before this date, the SEC only approved Bitcoin futures ETF (this was the case since 2021) but not spot (spot) bitcoin ETFs, considering that futures are more difficult to manipulate because the market is based on the futures prices of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC).
Source: https://www.bfmtv.com/crypto/bitcoin/explosion-du-bitcoin-le-marche-crypto-depasse-les-2-000-milliards-de-dollars-de-capitalisation_AV-202402280356.html
