Crypto market cap surges above US$1 trillion for first time

NEW YORK: The total market value of all cryptocurrencies rose above US$1 trillion for the first time on Thursday as Bitcoin surged to a record high, according to data by crypto coin trackers CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko.

Bitcoin has jumped more than 900 per cent to US$38,655 on Thursday, from US$3,850 in March, as governments increase speeding to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus. This has raised fears about rising inflation and US dollar debasement.

The cryptocurrency is also gaining traction with more mainstream investors who are increasingly convinced that Bitcoin will be a long-lasting asset, and not a speculative bubble as some analysts and investors fear.

Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, a decentralised network that provides data to smart contracts on the blockchain, said that there is a “lack of faith in traditional institutions that is driving this large rally towards cryptoassets.”

“While outsiders may view the cryptocurrency industry being valued at over US$1 trillion as an incredibly significant milestone, in actuality our space is still in one of its very early stages of development and growth,” Nazarov said.

The market cap of all cryptocurrencies rose 10 per cent to US$1.042 trillion on Thursday, data from CoinMarketCap shows. Bitcoin accounts for around 69 per cent of the total market cap of the total. It is followed by Ethereum with a 13 per cent share.