Major cryptocurrencies experienced marginal losses late Friday evening, despite the crypto market cap reaching its highest level since the spring of 2022.
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded 9:00 a.m. EST) |
| Bitcoin BTC/USD | -2.2% | $51,150 |
| Ethereum ETH/USD | -3.2% | $2,750 |
| Solana SOL/USD | -4.6% | $106.90 |
What Happened: Bitcoin BTC/USD surged 9.4% over the past seven days, briefly reaching $52,000 on Feb. 15. The two-year peak coincided with the broader crypto market approaching a valuation of $2 trillion.
In other developments, altcoins and memecoins also benefited from a trending market.
Shiba Inu SHIB/USD saw one zero shaved off its trading price, while Cardano ADA/USD approached a breakout that could potentially push it past the psychological threshold of $0.60.
Furthermore, Chainlink's LINK/USD strong performance briefly propelled it ahead of Dogecoin DOGE/USD in market cap ranking. Dogecoin regained its 10th position by the end of the week.
The week also saw notable activity in the artificial intelligence cryptocurrency vertical, driven by the launch of Sora and OpenAI's new text-to-video model. Notable AI crypto tokens include Bittensor TAO/USD and Render RNDR/USD.
ETF Updates: Franklin Templeton filed for a spot Ether ETF, joining other applicants such as BlackRock, VanEck and Fidelity. Additionally, Coinbase was named as custodian in five out of eight Ethereum ETF applications.
Data from Santiment revealed that the seven most notable ETFs reported an average daily trading volume of $1.8 billion in the first 15 days of February, mainly after Bitcoin surpassed the $50,000 level.
Bitcoin Archive noted a rapid increase in assets for spot Bitcoin ETFs, now approaching levels similar to gold ETFs. Within just 25 trading days, Bitcoin reports $37 billion in assets while, for gold, it stands at $93 billion as of Feb. 16.
Notably, Santiment data indicated significant growth in Bitcoin held by wallets of various sizes.
In 2024, $12.95 billion was added to wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 Bitcoins, while wallets holding between 100 and 10,000 Bitcoin saw an increase of approximately $5.06 billion.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded 9:45 a.m. EST) |
| Siacoin SC/USD | +15.8% | $0.01459 |
| Bitget Token BGB/USD | +6.5% | $0.976 |
| Kaspa KAS/USD | +12.6% | $0.1602 |
The global cryptocurrency market cap currently stands at $1.94 trillion.
Bitcoin dominance stands at 52.42%, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index at 76 in the Greed zone.
In the broader market, the Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.82% to close at 15,775.65, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a slight dip of 0.37%, closing at 38,627.99.
This marked the end of a five-week winning streak for the indexes, attributed to concerns about potential delays in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve following hotter-than-expected inflation reports.
With increases in two- and 10-year Treasury yields, interest-sensitive sectors such as technology, consumer discretionary and real estate were impacted.
Analyst Notes: Following Bitcoin's surge to $52,000, crypto analyst Michaël Van de Poppe examined the possibility of the market reaching $100,000 in the coming months.
What’s Next: In another tweet, Poppe said he foresees “a consolidation before a potential top at $54-57K.”
Meanwhile, Bitcoin and altcoin investor, Mister Crypto tweeted, "Will Bitcoin ever see a correction again?"
Also Read: Peter Thiel's Founders Fund Bets Big On Bitcoin And Ether With $200M Investment: Report
Photo: Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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