In early trading in Asian markets on Monday, December 2nd, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies reached a record high of $3.65 trillion. That's nearly $600 billion higher than the previous peak of just under $3.1 trillion during the 2021 bull market three years ago.
Moreover, the majority of these gains occurred in the last month, with $1.2 trillion poured into digital assets in November. To put this into perspective, the cryptocurrency market has gained more than its October 2023 market cap in just one month.
According to CompaniesMarketCap, the cryptocurrency market now exceeds the market capitalization of Apple, the world's largest company, and recently surpassed Nvidia again.
“We are entering an era of growing and rising pie. It’s time to think differently,” Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley commented.
The time has come for a mindset of abundance in cryptocurrencies.
Bear markets create zero-sum thinking, where people profit by stealing share from others as the pie shrinks.
As of November of this year, virtual currencies have surpassed the all-time high of $3 trillion in market capitalization set in November 2021.
I'm going in… pic.twitter.com/M4E92YrXR3
— Hunter Horsley (@HHorsley) December 1, 2024
Bitcoin’s Big November, altcoins are on fire
Bitcoin had a monumental month, rising 40% in November, largely driven by Donald Trump's presidential election victory. Kobeishleter described Bitcoin's rise as “truly historic,” noting that the price has soared 49% in the past four weeks, marking its best performance since August 2021.
“Bitcoin prices are up ~130% year-to-date, marking the third strongest year in the past decade,” he added.
Bitcoin's rise was truly historic.#bitcoin Prices have risen 49% in the past four weeks, marking the best four-week performance since August 2021.
The recent gains have even exceeded February's gains since the Bitcoin ETF was launched in January.
As a result, the price of Bitcoin… pic.twitter.com/SdsKNtEwJ9
— Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) December 1, 2024
However, it was altcoins that drove the rally over the weekend. Ethereum appears to be turning resistance into support, hitting a six-month high of $3,750 on December 2nd, following a 47% surge last month.
Analyst “Rect Capital'' observed on Monday's X that the stock is ready to break out of the wedge chart structure that has been in place since March.
XRP is also surging as the Ripple cross-border token rose 30% to reach a six-year high of $2.48 on December 2nd. This made the asset the third-largest digital asset with a market cap of $138 billion, reversing the market cap of Solana and Tether.
Other big moves
Cardano's market capitalization surpassed 40 billion as ADA surged more than 9% on the day to $1.18 during Monday morning trading in Asia. This is the highest price for the asset since March 2022.
Avalanche (AVAX) rose 10% daily to break above $48 and return to April price levels. Stellar Lumens (XLM) also had a solid weekend, with the price soaring to $0.574, its highest since May 2021, mainly due to the big move in XRP.
Hedera (HBAR) soared, rising 44% on the day to reach $0.248 on December 2nd, while Litecoin (LTC) rose 20% to break above $125 for the first time since March 2022.
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