By
Steve Muchoki
April 24th, 2024
The growth of the thousands of digital currencies and its impact on the global crypto market cap is fast pulling the new range of asset classes from their nascent stages.
The global crypto market cap has retested the $2 trillion thresholds for the first time since May 2021 as the growth of Bitcoin (BTC) as well as the resurgence of altcoins stirred the growth. At the time of writing, the industry valuation per 8,849 coins according to data from Coingecko, the global crypto market cap has pared off some of its gains, however, it is down 1.2% to $1.96 trillion.
The depression of the global crypto market cap from its all-time high (ATH) price of $2.45 trillion attained back on the 7th of May was fueled by a number of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) that permeated the ecosystem. Top of these include the clampdown on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining activity from China, forcing miner to resume the greatest migration in history. Thanks to new crypto hotspots in Kazakhstan, Canada, and United States harboring these miners.
The FUD on the energy consumption associated with mining Proof-of-Work (PoW) as well as tax regulations from American governments also contributed to lowering the market cap as investors stayed on the sidelines. The inflow of funds got halted, as retail investors helped maintain daily transaction volume growth.
Bitcoin and Altcoin’s Contribution to the Market Cap
Bitcoin still remain the largest digital currency by market capitalization. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $45,856.81, up 0.96% at the time of writing. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is currently pegged at $861,876,415,927, exerting a 45.1% dominance in the market. Bitcoin is currently about 29.27% from its $64,800 ATH and according to the hoard of analysts, the possibility for the premier coin to outpace this price range before year-end is high.
Many altcoins are also charting a growth course for themselves, with Ethereum (ETH) brandishing one of the greatest fundamentals fueling investor’s interest. Besides the EIP 1559 upgrade that went live last week which made the Ether tokens a deflationary asset, there is a highly network migration from the current PoW to Ethereum 2.0, a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain.
Ethereum has a 19.5% dominance rate atop a $372.2 billion market cap from a current price of $3,167.44. The contributions of other altcoins including Binance Coin (BNB), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), the host of stablecoins such as Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC). Every altcoin has a contributing effect to the growth of the market cap, and per the current run in the price of some altcoins, a number of market analysts are seeing an alt-season that may be nearer than ever envisaged.
Transformation from a Nascent Industry
The growth of the thousands of digital currencies and its impact on the global crypto market cap is fast pulling the new range of asset classes from their nascent stages. Compared to the over $11 trillion market cap of gold, the cryptocurrency ecosystem still has a long way to go, however, the growth of now is a good indicator of what the future holds.