What just happened? Cryptocurrency's two biggest players, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have seen a mild resurgence over the last few days that helped push crypto's overall market cap back above the $1 trillion mark, albeit only briefly. But while that milestone is $40 billion away at the time of writing, the overwhelming majority of digital assets have experienced rises across the last seven days.
The last few weeks have not been kind to crypto. May saw Bitcoin crash to its lowest level since 2020, wiping $1 trillion off the markets, and that was followed by lending-platform Celsius freezing withdrawals due to "extreme market conditions."
Ether's price has been on the rise over the last week
But crypto has experienced a mini-turnaround recently. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is at $21,407, while Ether, which was hovering around $880 on June 18, is at $1,227. Those numbers are still around 30% lower than they were at the start of this month and a fraction of their prices during November last year, but investors will be glad to see the number one and number two cryptos heading in the right direction.
Looking at the top 100 cryptocurrencies shows a similar story over the previous seven days. Most are up, with Dogecoin almost 30% higher than it was a week ago, a boost likely aided by Elon Musk saying he continues to support and buy Doge despite the $258 billion lawsuit launched against him and his companies.
Coinmarketcap still has the global crypto market cap beneath $1 trillion---$960 billion---but that could change again if the upward trends continue.
The collapse of TerraUSD and support coin Luna, along with rising inflation, have contributed to the recent decline in crypto prices. We'll have to wait and see whether they've weathered the storm and keep on rising or if this is just temporary relief before another fall.
Masthead credit: Art Rachen