At around 7:00 a.m. EST on Friday, the cryptocurrency market hit a new all-time high of $1.5 billion USD in 24-hour trading volume, as shown by CoinMarketCap.The majority of this volume was due to Bitcoin trading on the Chinese exchange OKCoin, which accounted for at least 50% of the total cryptocurrency market volume at one time yesterday.
This is a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency space, which has experienced rapid growth in 2015, and shows that even with Bitcoin prices hovering around $450 USD at popular exchanges like Bitstamp, the cryptocurrency market continues to see increasing interest and activity.
The sudden surge in total trading volume is likely due to several factors, including a major rally in the altcoin markets yesterday (April 22nd), strong demand for Bitcoin trading on Chinese exchanges (where Bitcoin traded above $500 USD), and increased activity on darknet markets like Evolution Market (which requires payments in Bitcoin).
The altcoin rally was fueled by Dogecoin and Darkcoin, both of which saw over 20% gains throughout the day yesterday.
Based on the average daily percentage increase over 30 days of the top ten cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin through Litecoin), April 22nd was one of the most bullish days of 2015 so
Given the recent setbacks in the cryptocurrency market, it is perhaps timely to discuss just what a $1.5 billion market means for cryptocurrencies and their future.
In order to do this, we must first examine what exactly constitutes a market. A market is simply the number of buyers and sellers, willing to trade at any given time. This is a very simplistic view of the world and not necessarily accurate in all cases.
The reason why the growth of cryptocurrencies is so difficult to predict is because they are an emerging asset class. This means that they are still relatively new, and there are only a small number of people who know how to use them effectively.
Since there are so few people who actually understand cryptocurrencies and use them effectively, there is a great opportunity for those who do understand them to take advantage of this by creating new markets for these assets.
In order for these new markets to grow properly, the most important factor is educating the public about the advantages that cryptocurrencies offer over traditional currencies. The education process will be easier if more people understand how these currencies work and why they have value in the first place.
The cryptocurrency market is currently valued at $1.5 billion USD and is expected to reach $8 billion USD by the end of this year, according to a recent report by Juniper Research.
Juniper Research is a research and consulting firm that focuses on the emerging trends in the high-technology sector. The firm recently published a research report titled “The Future of Blockchain: Key Vertical Opportunities & Deployment Strategies 2017-2022”, which includes information about the current value of the cryptocurrency market space as well as its projected growth over the next five years.
According to the report, “Blockchain technology will impact many aspects of business and finance in coming years, with payment systems and financial services being an obvious area for change. Furthermore, we see many untapped opportunities for companies in other industries outside of financial services, such as online gambling and e-commerce markets.”
The company predicts that blockchain will play a large part in these growing markets as their value increases over time.
Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine, cryptocurrency investor and enthusiast Trace Mayer, who has been a proponent of bitcoin since its early days, said that he believes the $1.5 billion market capitalization is not only sustainable but a sign of growth to come.
“This represents real value being created,” he said. “It’s almost as if people are waking up and realizing that bitcoin is not just a flash-in-the-pan experiment but is actually an alternative monetary system with unique and fundamental properties.”
The cryptocurrency world has seen significant growth in 2016 alone. The price of bitcoin increased by more than 100 percent during the first two months of the year, while other cryptocurrencies like Ether and Ripple have seen even larger gains. Additionally, new funding has been flowing into cryptocurrency startups, including a $75 million investment in Coinbase and a $1.7 million investment in blockchain startup Factom’s series A, which closed late last month.
According to Mayer, this growth can be attributed to public awareness of cryptocurrencies over the past five years.
“People are starting to understand and use it as money,” he said. “I think we’re going to see more and more value creation as time goes on.”
It seems that cryptocurrencies have finally found their way into the mainstream. Thanks to some good news, the cryptocurrency market as a whole has gained over $1.5 billion in value in the last 24 hours, bringing the total market cap to over $25 billion.
The Bitcoin price increased by over $200 in just a few minutes after the SEC announced that they would not ban Bitcoin ETFs in the United States and that any future ruling on the matter will be delayed for another 20 days. The price is currently sitting around $655, but it is likely to go even higher when more investors realize how positive this news really is.
The Ethereum price also went up by nearly 10% over the past few hours, mostly because of two very significant developments: JPMorgan Chase has officially decided to use Ethereum’s blockchain for their own internal ledger and Microsoft has launched a new service called Azure Blockchain Workbench.
The first one is very important for Ethereum because it essentially means that JPMorgan Chase will endorse Ethereum’s blockchain solution, which will increase its legitimacy and encourage other companies to do the same thing.
Microsoft’s decision to launch a new service called Azure Blockchain Workbench is also very significant because it essentially provides businesses with all of the necessary tools they need to start
It’s fair to say that the price of Bitcoin has seen better days. It’s not a secret that the cryptocurrency market is suffering. And now, as we approach the end of 2017, things are looking even bleaker. In fact, it’s become quite common to see the value of a currency drop by more than 10% in a single day. A week ago, for example, Bitcoin was valued at $18,000 USD, today it sits at $12,500 USD. The question is: what’s next?
The cryptocurrency market has been growing steadily since its inception in 2008. But despite its relatively short existence, the industry has already experienced many ups and downs. For example, when Bitcoin launched in 2009 the currency was valued at less than $1 USD. The value of that coin, however exploded in 2013 when it reached $1,100 USD and again briefly in 2017 when it reached $19,000 USD before crashing to today’s current prices.
So what does this mean for cryptocurrencies? There are many who think that this is just a blip on an upward trend and others who think this could be the beginning of a downward spiral. For now all we can do is wait and see what happens
The price of one Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $1,242 USD today, the strongest cryptocurrency has ever been. The digital currency is now worth more than an ounce of gold, and could soon be worth more than its weight in silver.
What’s more, Bitcoin was also able to surpass the total market capitalization of PayPal. With a market cap of $20 billion USD, Bitcoin is now valued at more than half that of Mastercard. If it continues to grow at this rate, the cryptocurrency will soon be valued higher than both Visa and Mastercard combined.
Bitcoin has had a rough few days, with record-high transaction fees and confirmation times. The currency’s scalability problems have put it in a position where it must either adapt or die.
It’s hard to predict what will happen with Bitcoin from here on out, as the currency has proven itself to be very volatile over time. One thing is for sure: if these trends continue, Bitcoin will soon dominate the world economy.