Crypto Market Cap Breaks ATH: Bitcoin Dominance Soars as Altcoins Struggle Against BTC (Market Watch)
Just hours after the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin Futures ETF in the US, the cryptocurrency came less than $500 away from painting a new all-time high. While BTC failed to do so yet, the cryptocurrency market capitalization of all digital assets saw a new record of nearly $2.550 trillion.
Bitcoin Eyes New ATH
The entire crypto community had its sight set on the Bitcoin Futures ETF launch in the United States in the past several days as multiple reports from last week claimed that the SEC will finally allow such a product to go live.
And, yesterday, October 19th, ProShares’ BTC Futures ETF indeed reached Wall Street with a record trading volume in the first 24 hours of $1 billion.
Bitcoin’s price reacted to these developments as it skyrocketed above $60,000 following the first reports and kept climbing to $63,000 during the weekend. It failed at first, but it broke above it yesterday as the ETF was launched.
BTC continued upwards to an intraday high of $64,500. Thus, it came less than 1% away from its all-time high registered in April at roughly $65,000.
Despite retracing to $64,000 as of now, BTC’s market capitalization stands north of $1.2 trillion. The dominance over the altcoins is at a two-month high at nearly 48%.
Crypto Market Cap Sets New ATH
While BTC closes down on its price records, most larger-cap altcoins have stood behind and watched. Ethereum is slightly up on the day and has increased above $3,850.
More minor gains come from Ripple, Polkadot, and Avalanche. Terra is the only substantial gainer, with a 6% increase to $38. The rest have marked minor losses, including Binance Coin, Cardano, Solana, Dogecoin, Uniswap, and Litecoin.
More fluctuations are evident from the lower- and mid-cap alts. OKB leads the way with a 24% surge to $23, followed by Huobi Token (11%), Hedera (10%), KuCoin Token (9%), and Cosmos (8%).
Ultimately, the cumulative market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies saw a new record of just under $2.550 trillion hours ago.
