The prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum rose more than 6% overnight as the global crypto market added a staggering 6% to its total market capitalization, taking it up to $2.38 trillion according to CoinGecko.
Bitcoin is currently trading just under $49,000—the last time it was trading at this level was on Thursday last week. It’s currently still 29% shy of its all-time high of $68,790, which it set on November 10 this year.
Ethereum also reclaimed some lost ground and is now trading for a little above $4,000. Like Bitcoin, the last time it passed this threshold was last Thursday. It’s still about 18% off its former all-time high of $4,892, set last month on November 16.
Since the prices of the two market leaders are rising in tandem, it’s hard to pinpoint any one cause driving prices within the sector. The move is particularly striking given that the U.S. Federal Reserve has signaled that it’s ready to start phasing out its pandemic stimulus program and raising interest rates.
Raising rates has often been interpreted as a bearish impulse to financial markets, specifically for on-risk assets like stocks and, for many investors, cryptocurrencies.
Terra goes lunar, Avalanche still surging
Terra’s LUNA and Avalanche’s AVAX have been rallying hard recently too and neither asset shows any signs of slowing.
LUNA blew up 13.8% overnight to set a new all-time high of $84.92, while AVAX surged 14% in the same period and trades at $118.
In addition to LUNA setting a new high watermark, progenitor Terra has even more reason to be celebrating today. The network overtook Binance Smart Chain to become the second-biggest DeFi protocol in terms of total value locked: $18 billion in just 13 Terra-based projects.
Avalanche’s recent price performance is down to growing institutional adoption. On December 14, financial services company Circle announced it was bringing its USDC stablecoin to Avalanche’s blockchain. Two days later, crypto custodian BitGo broke the news that it’s supporting AVAX, and two of its exchanges–BitStamp and BitBuy–will list AVAX early next year.
Polygon and Shiba Inu are also up more than 10% in the last 24 hours. Polygon currently trades at $2.35, while Shiba Inu trades at $0.00003249.
With this final push, 2021 may very well end with a bang for investors.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.