Bitcoin and Ethereum got off to a flying start on Monday when they both set all-time highs.
Bitcoin flew past the $67,600 threshold and continued to rally till Wednesday when it set an ATH of $68,789. Meanwhile, Ethereum crossed $4,800 on Monday and landed on $4,859 by Wednesday.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two leading cryptocurrencies by global market capitalization, coming in first and second place respectively. This week the combined market cap of the entire crypto market hit $3 trillion. Bitcoin accounts for over $1.2 trillion, while Ethereum covers about half a trillion.
Much of Bitcoin’s gains at the end of last month were spurred by the launch of Proshares’s Bitcoin Futures ETF–a regulated financial instrument that tracks the prices of Bitcoin Futures. While another Bitcoin Futures ETF was approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission not long after, this time by digital asset manager Valkyrie, the likelihood of a Bitcoin spot ETF getting approved remains significantly lower.
On Tuesday, Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO of digital asset management firm Grayscale said that the approval of a Bitcoin ETF that tracks Bitcoin’s current price–rather than one tied to Bitcoin Futures contracts–has “become a political issue.” There may be truth in that: yesterday, the SEC rejected investment firm VanEck’s application for a Bitcoin Spot ETF.
Bitcoin and Ethereum still post 6% gains over the last seven days. Bitcoin trades at a price of $64,567, while Ethereum is currently worth $4,669 at the time of writing. This weekend, a long-awaited upgrade to Bitcoin called Taproot is set to go live. Some analysts think its effect on Bitcoin’s price is baked in; others think that Bitcoin could climb even further.
The week in altcoins
On Tuesday, Solana flipped Tether’s market cap for the second time in the last forty days to become the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency. Solana fans will be hoping for a repeat performance soon, since the currency is back down to fifth place today. It lost 4% of its value over the week and currently trades at $234.
Litecoin surged 33% in the last week to trade for around $260, and Bitcoin Cash blew up 14% to hit $667. Both Bitcoin spinoffs benefited from the announcement that AMC Theatres would be accepting them both by the end of the year. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin will also be accepted.
The price of Polkadot dropped by 8.6% this week. It is worth $46.29 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Avalanche grew 24% in price to hit $92.06 and Shiba Inu dropped 14% to hit $0.00005206.
In summary: after an explosive start to the week, the market leaders have gone slow and steady. The biggest price movements were seen among altcoins, some of which will be redeemable at movie theatres very soon.