Bitcoin surpasses $71,000, flipping silver's market cap; Ethereum reaches $4,000; approaching Bitcoin halving boosts prices. Stay updated on crypto news.
The cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin, often likened to 'digital gold,' has surpassed silver in market capitalization, soaring past $71,000 and establishing a fresh all-time high.
This achievement is becoming familiar territory for Bitcoin, particularly since the outset of March.
On Friday, Bitcoin broke through the $70,000 barrier for the first time, and by early Monday, its value had climbed to $71,239.37. This marks a 2.7% increase since yesterday and an 11.4% surge since the same time last week.
As is customary, the exact all-time high price varies depending on the exchange or price aggregator consulted. At around 9:20 Central European Time, BTC was trading at $71,700 on Coinbase; $71,560 on CoinGecko; and $71,607 on CoinMarketCap.
Just three months ago, as anticipation swirled around the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoin managed to surpass the market capitalizations of Elon Musk's Tesla, Meta (formerly Facebook), as well as Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
With a market cap of $1.4 trillion, Bitcoin now claims the eighth spot among the world's largest assets. While gold remains at the summit with its $14.7 trillion market cap, Bitcoin still trails behind Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Saudi Aramco, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet.
What's fueling this bullish rally? A significant factor is the impending Bitcoin halving, projected to occur in approximately 35 days, around April 15, according to NiceHash.
The Bitcoin halving reduces the rewards given to miners for processing new blocks on the network. This upcoming halving, the fourth in Bitcoin's history, will slash the reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Meanwhile, Ethereum has reclaimed the $4,000 milestone this morning, a level last seen in 2021. However, it seems to have encountered some resistance, with the current Ethereum price sitting at $3,992.13. This represents a 1.3% increase since yesterday and a 13.6% surge since last week.
In terms of market cap, Ethereum's $480 billion valuation places it above the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, and it's rapidly closing in on Walmart's $484 billion market cap, according to Infinite Market Cap.
Ethereum has its own bullish news this week, with the imminent rollout of the Dencun upgrade scheduled in just two days. This upgrade is expected to significantly reduce transaction costs on Ethereum's layer-2 network, according to developers interviewed by Decrypt last week.