The cryptocurrency market is now valued at $300 billion

The global market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has reached a combined total of $300 billion—a value that hasn't been seen since July 2019.

The total crypto market cap has been on the rise for the better part of two months, having climbed from a low of $178.1 billion in mid-December. Almost $18 billion was added to the crypto market in the last 24 hours, with most cryptocurrencies racking up significant price gains.

Bitcoin (BTC) was responsible for half of the market growth, after gaining 5.3% in the last day and adding almost $9 billion to its market cap. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made comments in a hearing yesterday of the US House Committee on Financial Services, about Libra and the possibility of a US digital currency, shortly before Bitcoin's sudden $400 price rise.

Despite this growth, Bitcoin has seen its market dominance gradually shrink as several major altcoins have racked up significant gains in the last several months. In particular, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Ethereum (ETH) and Tezos (XTZ) have all exceeded the growth of Bitcoin by some margin—gaining at least 39% and as much as 100% against BTC in the past month.

With that said, the exact cause behind this bullish momentum over the last few months is still up for debate, but currently appears to be a combination of several factors, including growing institutional interest, the upcoming halving events for Bitcoin and several other coins, as well as increased tensions between the US and Iran.