Crypto world hits $3 trillion market cap as ether, bitcoin gain in trade

The cryptocurrency market is now worth more than $3 trillion.

As of 7:38 a.m. in London, the overall market cap of cryptocurrencies hit $3.01 trillion, according to CoinGecko pricing. The third- and fourth-biggest tokens, Binance Coin and Solana, have added more than 20% in the past seven days; all of the seven biggest coins are up over the last week.

Bitcoin rose as much as 5.5% on Monday to $66,339, nearing its previous record of about $67,000. Ether advanced as much as 3% to a new high of $4,768. 

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Of course, crypto is notoriously volatile. The last time Bitcoin reached these levels, it fell back several thousand dollars, and it’s undergone multiple corrections that take it down by half or more. Other coins are even more volatile -- the memecoins bounce back and forth wildly at times -- and scams and hacks occur with some frequency.

The crypto market has already roughly quadrupled from its 2020 year-end value, as investors have gotten more comfortable with established tokens and networks like Ethereum and Solana continue to upgrade and attract new functionality. Excitement about the possibilities of decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens is growing, and memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu continue to attract attention.

Bitcoin’s current rally has been fueled by the U.S. trading debut of a Bitcoin-linked ETF as well as Elon Musk’s weekend Twitter poll, said Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at crypto exchange AAX. “With Shiba and other memecoins having surged recently, and Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, interest in altcoins continues to rise.”