The market cap of all digital currencies has now risen above $100 billion for the first time ever as a boom seemingly continues in this space at a scale and speed never seen before.
Bitcoin has been leading, rising nearly 14% with its price nearing $3,000, an all time high. The currency has gone mainstream in the west, with its market cap now standing at almost $50 billion.
What is driving bitcoin’s rise is not very clear. South Korea appears to be very thirsty, handling significant volume, with China becoming a player as well, but bitcoin’s main trading pair remains with Ethereum.
That has also risen, with eth’s price now standing above $260. The currency has been making new highs daily recently, rising $10 or $20 every day, as it too reaches some mainstream adoption.
But, unlike for bitcoin, ethereum’s mainstream adoption is mainly by household brands looking to utilize its platform for many projects in diverse fields and industries. As far as brand recognition, eth remains unknown with most at Time’s Square probably having never heard of it, while bitcoin has now probably reached the level of a household name.
The two currencies have been racing for quite some time now. Eth’s market cap stands above the market cap bitcoin had just last month, but the latter has also increased in value.
Interestingly, all of the top 8 digital currencies now have a market cap above $1 billion. That used to be very rare and was newsworthy when Ethereum rose above it at the beginning of the year, but now seems common.
A new entrant here is Sratis, a digital currency that appears to be a bitcoin clone with the only difference seemingly being that its client is written in C# instead of C++, because corporations use C#, they say .
They plan to seemingly follow Bitcoin Core’s roadmap and wish to add sidechains, Tumblebit, the Lightning Network and all the rest, with its developers seemingly being Bitcoin Core contributors, like Nicolas Dorier.
The rest of digital currencies are not having much significant movement, but they’re mostly up as the great spring boom continues to reach new levels, making new highs.
Featured image from Shutterstock.