Crypto Prices Surge as Global Market Cap Nears $2 Trillion

Crypto's recovery accelerated overnight as global market cap approaches historic new milestone. Wall Street also set new records.

By Matt Hussey

In brief

• Crypto prices surged after a slew of bullish signals from investors.
• Cardano added to its sizeable gains overnight with a 10% increase in prices.
• Wall Street hit new records too as US economy awash with cash.

After a patchy recovery yesterday, cryptocurrencies across the board surged on a wave of bullish news from institutional investors.

Global market cap gained 4.65% overnight sitting above $1.8 trillion. It’s now within a whisker of the previous all-time market high of $1.85 trillion set last weekend.

The boom in asset prices has also seen digital currencies make further inroads when compared to gold’s market cap. The value of all cryptoassets is now 25% of gold’s market cap, up from just 20% a month ago. 

Leading that charge is Bitcoin, with gains of 4.9% in the last 24 hours, taking its price above $58,000. 

The price has been buoyed by news Chinese tech firm Meitu has purchased $49 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

The acquisition takes the company’s holding to around $90 million and has been interpreted as a positive signal of Bitcoin’s sustained popularity among big business. Speaking of big business, Morgan Stanley has joined the BTC fray, becoming the first big US bank to offer its wealthy clients access to Bitcoin funds. 

Almost as soon as these stories broke, Bitcoin went on a charge. Ethereum’s gains however, were more modest. It added 1.8% to its market cap, putting it firmly in the $1,800 range. 

Cardano, this week’s rising star, added another 10% on top of the 20% gains it made yesterday. While the project had been trading places with previous crypto darling Binance Coin - which had been enjoying its own purple patch as of late - Cardano is now worth $2 billion more than BNB.

Hex and Algorand also gained more than 10% in trading overnight. 

More new records on Wall Street

Wall Street continues its stock winning streak after the Federal Reserve committed to its policy of aggressively buying up assets despite the accelerating recovery of the US economy. 

The S&P 500 and Dow jumped to record closing highs, with the latter closing above 33,000 for the first time. The Nasdaq increased for a third straight session. The growth comes despite treasury yields extending recent gains, with the benchmark 10-year yield rising to a yearly high of 1.68%.

New highs. IMAGE: Google

As part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID package, some 90 million stimulus checks worth a total of $242 billion have been issued so far flushing the US economy with liquidity. Investors are awaiting the deluge of consumer spending that's expected once life returns to normal. 

Just in case you were wondering what’s been happening with the band of investors known as /WallStreetBets, they’ve been busy raising more than $300,000 to help save the gorillas. Aww.