Bitcoin (CRYTPO: BTC) has again cracked through the psychologically important US$50,000 level.
The biggest crypto by market cap hit a high of US$50,343 about 6 hours ago and has since edged lower to US$49,308.
At the current price, Bitcoin has a market valuation of US$928.5 million (AU$1.25 trillion).
While a number of altcoins have been making headline news this week for their outsized gains, Bitcoin maintains a firm grip as the world's the dominant token. Its value equates to roughly 42% of the total cryptocurrency market cap of some US$2.2 trillion.
That's one of the reasons crypto investors in other tokens watch Bitcoin closely, as it tends to set the wider trend.
Image source: Getty Images
What's supporting the Bitcoin price?
According to Petr Kozyakov, CEO of global-payment network Mercuryo (quoted by Bloomberg):
Two fundamental factors that are likely behind Bitcoin's push: Twitter's potential integration of the coin as a Tip Jar payment option, and the official launch of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador come September 7. While we are expecting the $50,000 price point to hold, Bitcoin buyers are exercising more optimism for even a bigger price gain by year-end.
As for altcoins, which are any digital token that's not Bitcoin, JPMorgan Chase & Co strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou sounds a note of caution:
The previous phase of retail investors' 'mania' into cryptocurrency markets was between the beginning of January and mid-May when the share of altcoins had risen from 13% to 37.6%.
While far from the record high of 55% seen in January 2018, at 32.6%, the share of altcoins looks rather elevated by historical standards and, in our opinion, it is more likely to be a reflection of froth and retail investor 'mania' rather than a reflection of a structural uptrend.
Speaking of potential mania…
Today's best performing altcoin
The best performing altcoin over the past 24 hours is IOTA (CRYPTO: MIOTA).
The 36th largest crypto by market valuation at US$4.2 billion, IOTA is up 37% since this time yesterday. One IOTA is currently worth US$1.54.
So, what the heck is IOTA?
CoinMarketCap tells us:
IOTA is a distributed ledger with one big difference: it isn't actually a blockchain. Instead, its proprietary technology is known as Tangle, a system of nodes that confirm transactions. The foundation behind this platform says this offers far greater speeds than conventional blockchains — and an ideal footprint for the ever-expanding Internet of Things ecosystem.
While IOTA has been enjoying a great day, it's worth noting that it's still down 39% from 16 April, when it was trading for US$2.53.
As for Bitcoin, it's still down 22% from its 16 April record highs.
Caveat emptor.
