London, Monday, 28 August 2023
The overall market capitalization for crypto assets surpassed $1 trillion on Monday, 18 July 2022, for the first time in the previous five weeks.
The relative milestone occurs as three significant cryptocurrency bankruptcy cases begin, and investor anticipation for Ethereum's long-awaited merger continues to rise.
A disastrous second quarter for the asset class has led to cryptocurrency's drive to reclaim the trillion dollar market size.
For the most of Monday morning, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) traded above $22,000, with its weekly movement close to 10%. The largest cryptocurrency in the world had a decline of nearly 60%, falling from over $42,000 in late April to a low of $17,744 on June 18.
Since June 18, when it recorded the lowest level seen in the previous four years, the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index, a gauge used by cryptocurrency traders to assess market sentiment surrounding the largest coin in the industry, has increased threefold.
The mood gauge is still showing "severe terror" levels, though.
According to Matthew Hougan, chief investment officer of cryptocurrency asset manager BitWise, Ethereum's successful switch to proof-of-stake may be the key to the cryptocurrency industry's best story for the second half of 2022.
With increased hope for its long-awaited software transition, Ether (ETH-USD) is currently trading at $1,481 per token, up 30% in the past week.
Hougan stated through email that Ethereum will be the preferred institutional asset in the second part of the year and that it is currently for sale.
Tim Beiko, an Ethereum Core engineer, stated on Friday that the actual merge may take place the week of September 19 if the final "dress-rehearsal" test scheduled for the first part of August is successful. The so-called merge still lacks a firm date.
Following a year-to-date low on June 18, ether has recovered almost 4% of its market share, moving from less than 14% to 17.7% as of Monday morning.
Noelle Acheson, head of analytics at prime broker Genesis Trading, noted the ether's significant increase in market share contrasted to bitcoin's decrease over the past four days and said the change shows "a resurgence in risk sentiment."
(Source: Trading Economics // Edited by: The Decision Maker – Finance editors. As appeared in 18 July 2022)
(Picture by: TheFinancials.com)