It has been a bit of a mixed 24 hours for cryptocurrency markets, but the total value of the market has pushed higher thanks to solid gains from two of the top five coins.
This has taken the value of the entire market to US$509.2 billion according to Coin Market Cap.
The bitcoin (BTC) price has been far and away the highlight during the period. The world's largest cryptocurrency is up 5.5% during the last 24 hours to US$11,802. This gives bitcoin a market capitalisation of US$199.2 billion, making up approximately 39.1% of the entire market.
Strong trading volumes in South Korea appear to be behind the sustained move higher. Sentiment in the nation has been becoming increasingly positive after officials signalled that they wouldn't be banning crypto exchanges as first feared.
Negative comments from Bank of England governor Mark Carney haven't done anything to dent sentiment. Overnight Mr Carney stated his opinion that bitcoin has failed in all aspects of being money. I felt this was a fair point.
Elsewhere, the ethereum (ETH) price has tumbled almost 2% lower since this time yesterday to US$931 per token, giving it a market capitalisation of US$91 billion.
Ripple (XRP) has fallen 1.5% during the last 24 hours to US$1.13. The popular altcoin has struggled to break out of its narrow trading range for some time now despite Western Union confirming that it is testing Ripple's technology for its money transfers. XRP has a market capitalisation of just over US$44 billion.
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price has also lost around 1.5% of its value since this time yesterday. It is currently priced at US$1,513, leaving it with a market capitalisation of US$25.7 billion.
The best performer during the period has been the Litecoin (LTC) price. It has moved over 8.5% higher to US$245, giving the increasingly popular crypto a market capitalisation of US$13.5 billion. The launch of LitePay payment processing technology appears to be the catalyst for the sudden interest in Litecoin.
