Bitcoin price surge pushes the cryptocurrency market up

Bitcoin (BTC) is once again in the green today, after rising from a low of $9,634 up to a peak of over $10,160 in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin now sits at just over $10,149 after gaining 4.5% since yesterday.

Bitcoin now has a market capitalization of almost $185 billion—just over $5 billion short of its highest value so far in 2020. Likewise, its hash rate is now approaching its highest ever value, currently sitting at just shy of 116 million TH/s. This shows that miners are ramping up their Bitcoin production.

At least one of the main reasons behind this recent bullish momentum can be attributed to Bitcoin's third upcoming halving event, which is currently predicted to occur in just over 80 days. At this time, the number of newly minted Bitcoin with every new block will be reduced from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC, thereby reducing the number of new Bitcoin that enter circulation.

Barring stablecoins, the entire cryptocurrency market is performing well today, as the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies reached almost $297 billion—up 4.3% in the last day.

Although Bitcoin is responsible for the majority of this growth, altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) are also racking up strong gains, having increased by around six percent apiece, while Tezos (XTZ) has gained 15% to reach its highest value this year at $3.77.