Crypto market cap hits all-time high above $3 trillion

Major cryptocurrencies rose on Monday, hitting their highest levels in three weeks, while the global cryptocurrency market cap crossed the $3 trillion mark, according to CoinGecko.

Cryptocurrencies are gaining confidence as mainstream investors are increasingly adopting crypto assets, pushing the global cryptocurrency market to more than $3 trillion, said CoinGecko, which tracks prices of more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies.

The market-leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) hit a three-week high of $66,400, gaining 6% in the last 24 hours. The coin had a daily trading volume of $34 billion at the time of writing and accounted for 43.17% of the crypto market.

Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose to an all-time high of $4,762 during Asian trading hours Monday. The leading altcoin had a trading volume of $16 billion and accounted for 19.58% of the market.

As a result, the total crypto market cap broke into new highs of $3.007 trillion above its previous record of $2.62 trillion on Oct. 20 and has increased by a further 14.5% in less than three weeks, according to CoinGecko.

“While relatively steep and sudden, the BTC price surge is just a confirmation of an incredibly strong market setup that has been developing throughout October,” said Mikkel Morch, executive director and risk management at crypto/digital assets hedge fund ARK36. “Importantly, the uptick does not seem to be leverage-driven but rather results from the increased demand on the spot market where there is currently very little sell-side liquidity.”

Meantime, Global investment bank JPMorgan has doubled its long-term Bitcoin price forecast of $146,000, with a short-term price target of $73,000 for 2022. The bank’s analyst explained that the price of the cryptocurrency could reach this level if its volatility subsides and institutional investors start investing more in Bitcoin than gold in their portfolios.

“After losing ground to altcoins such as Solana last week, the incumbents BTC and ETH came roaring back to life late Sunday. ETH is once again at all-time highs while Bitcoin was also flirting with the 67,000 level,” said Martha Reyes, head of research at BEQUANT. “Positive signs such as net outflows from exchanges continue intact while this rally has not seen a big jump in funding rates or open interest. Further institutional adoption such as Australia’s Commonwealth Bank news likely boosted interest in Asia.”

Despite Bitcoin’s impressive price gains during the past two years, BTC’s market dominance has fallen by 42.8% since tagging a top of 70.8% on Sep. 6, 2019.

While Bitcoin still beats out its closest rival by more than double in terms of market share with 40.5% or $1.22 trillion compared to Ether’s 18.6% or $560 billion, the combined capitalization of all other cryptocurrencies is 40.9% or $1.24 trillion — evidencing the increasing plurality of the digital asset sector.