The cryptocurrency markets roared back to life on Monday, as 95 of the top 100 coins advanced into positive territory following a prolonged retreat. The ethereum price led the comeback with a 17% gain, and a myriad of coins posted impressive gains as well.
Monday’s rebound breathed life into the total crypto market cap, which has been experiencing a weeks-long freefall. On July 16, the total valuation of all cryptocurrencies fell as low as $61 billion–a nearly 50% decrease from its mid-June high of $117 billion. At present, the total cryptocurrency market cap has recovered to about $70 billion.
The ethereum price headlined Monday’s recovery, increasing 17% to about $166. This translates into a $32 gain since yesterday’s low of $134. Nevertheless, the ethereum price is still down 29% for the week. Ethereum currently has a market cap of about $15.5 billion.
Despite the recent downturn, many investors remain bullish on ethereum’s long-term prospects. Aragon co-founder Luis Cuende, for instance, predicts the ethereum price will reach $1,000 within two years.
The bitcoin price has become increasingly volatile as the August 1 deadline approaches. On Sunday, it fell below $1,900–close to the level predicted by a recent Goldman Sachs analysis–before recovering 6.4% on Monday to its present value of $2,020. The bitcoin price is down 19% for the week, bringing its market cap to $33.2 billion.
Almost every altcoin experienced positive gains on Monday. The Ripple price rose 6.6% to $0.141. The litecoin price crossed the $40 threshold with a 7.7% gain. Ethereum Classic could not match ethereum’s gains, but it still increased 6.7% to $14.
Both the NEM and Dash prices rose by more than 10% to $0.106 and $142, respectively. The Monero price rose 7.9% to $32. Stratis posted an impressive 17.7% gain to fight its way into the 10th place spot in the market cap rankings.
No major altcoin, however, fared as well as IOTA. In the past day alone, the IOTA price rose a stunning 48%, increasing from $0.155 to its present value of $0.239. The July downturn disproportionately affected IOTA, so today’s trading brings a welcome change to the 8th-ranked cryptocurrency.
On July 16, bitcoin market cap dominance crossed 50% for the first time since late May, meaning that bitcoin accounted for more than half of the total cryptocurrency value. Monday’s recovery caused bitcoin’s market cap share to taper off, but it still controls 47% of the total crypto market cap. This is a 2.5% increase from last week and a 6% increase from the beginning of July.
Ethereum currently has a 22.8% market share, a 2.3% daily increase. Meanwhile, Ripple–whose 37% weekly price decline is worst among top-10 coins–has watched its share erode to 8.3%.
Featured image from Shutterstock.