On January 7th, bitcoin surpassed the $37,000 mark for the first time ever, and the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies exceeded $1 trillion. The price of altcoins, including Ethereum, is also showing a sharp rise thanks to the strong bitcoin. Ethereum is trading at $1188, up 9.83% from the previous day, and ADA (21.86%), Stellar Lumen (62.83%), Chainlink (15.44%), and EOS (16.6%) are also recording double-digit increases. There is an expectation that the so-called alt season, when altcoin prices rise more steeply than bitcoin, is soon, but the industry observes that it is still premature.
#Bitcoin breaks an all-time record of $37,000
On the morning of the 7th, Bitcoin surpassed the all-time high of $37,000 based on the coin market cap and soared more than 9% compared to the previous day. In Korea, it is trading at 41.2 million won based on Upbit. As domestic investors, who left the market after the fire market ended in early 2018, recently started returning, the kimchi premium (a phenomenon in which domestic prices are higher than overseas prices) is also about 2.9%.
The cryptocurrency market cap exceeded $1 trillion, adding the institutions that led the bull market and the recently introduced private investors. Even though bitcoin has reached the declared price, there are observations that it will continue to rise in the future as the purchase process of investors is constant.
#Bitcoin has become too expensive… Altro Eyedolina
On the other hand, some are predicting that the price of bitcoin will rise so much that more investors will switch to altcoins. In fact, over the past week, the price of a number of major altcoins, including Ethereum, has risen higher than that of Bitcoin. Over the past week, Ethereum rose 61.56%, and Stellar Lumen surged 178.2%. In addition, Litecoin (32.84%), ADA (85.17%), Polkadot (36.88%), Bitcoin Cash (29.13%), and Chainlink (50.44%) also jumped steeply.
Among them, Ethereum, the largest altcoin, recovered its price during the blackout three years ago due to the launch of Ethereum 2.0, the launch of Ethereum futures on the Chicago Merchandise Exchange (CME) in February, and expansion of DeFi. Bitcoin dominance, which has surpassed 70% so far due to the surge in Ethereum, has fallen to 67%.
Stellar Lumen, which rose 72% overnight, is also attracting attention from investors. Stellar Lumen is now at $0.37, the highest in two years and is ranked 9th in the market cap. The surge in Stella Lumen’s price is related to Ripple, which was in crisis after being accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for selling undesired securities. Stellar Lumen is an analysis that is considered one of the best XRP alternatives because it is a hard forked cryptocurrency in XRP issued by Ripple. Ripple’s crisis turned into an opportunity for Stellar Lumen. The Ukrainian government has decided to use the Stellar Lumen network to develop the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC), fueling the rise in prices.
#It’s not the alt season yet… Optimistic
As the bitcoin price surge and the good news of some altcoins overlap, there are observations that the alt season has already come. However, experts believe that it is still too early to see Bitcoin dominance. Bitcoin dominance as of the 7th was 69.23%, down 3%p from the latest high, but compared to the lowest 37% at the time of the 2017 alt season, Bitcoin’s influence is still overwhelming.
However, some voices are optimistic that the alt season could come with the recent breakthrough of the cryptocurrency market cap of $1 trillion. Bitcoinist, a cryptocurrency medium, predicted, “The market cap of $1 trillion means that the cryptocurrency market has reached an important milestone. This could be an incentive for institutional investors to expand from the existing Bitcoin center to altcoins.”
Reporter Kwon Indie Jo