Overnight a good week just got even better for cryptocurrency traders after the top 20 cryptos continued their push higher.
So much so, an additional US$30 billion was added to the market over the last 24 hours. At present the cryptocurrency market has a combined value of US$480 billion according to Coin Market Cap.
The bitcoin (BTC) price has arguably been the star performer through this period. As I predicted yesterday, the crypto giant has smashed through the US$10,000 mark and is up almost 10% to US$10,200 per token. This gives bitcoin a market capitalisation of US$172.1 billion, equating to a 35.7% share of the market.
Ethereum (ETH) is up 2.5% since this time yesterday to US$934 per token. The cryptocurrency now has a market capitalisation of US$91.2 billion.
Popular altcoin Ripple (XRP) has seen its price rise almost 6% over the last 24 hours to US$1.15. Ripple's market capitalisation has climbed to US$45 billion. The third-largest cryptocurrency was given a boost this week when foreign exchange giant Western Union confirmed that its money transfer business is testing its technology.
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price is up 4% over the period to US$1,394, giving the bitcoin spin-off a market capitalisation of US$23.7 billion.
The Litecoin (LTC) price has continued its strong run and is 6% higher over the last 24 hours to US$220.80. Litecoin's market capitalisation has ballooned to US$12.2 billion ahead of its hard fork plans next week. This hard fork will create Litecoin Cash, a more efficient version of Litecoin designed to attract real world use.
Elsewhere, the Cardano (ADA), Stellar Lumens (XLM), and NEO (NEO) prices have all pushed higher since this time yesterday. Cardano has been the pick of the three altcoins, rising 5% to 40.7 U.S. cents.
Why is the market booming again?
Trader sentiment has been improving greatly thanks to reports that both U.S. and South Korean officials will not ban cryptocurrency exchanges, but rather make them safer. This has gone down well with traders, leading to a high level of fund inflows over the last few days.
But thing can change very quickly in the crypto world, so time will tell how long sentiment remains positive.
