BY Josiah Wilmoth
 

The total cryptocurrency market cap entered the day at $208 billion, and it climbed gradually throughout Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, the rally began to acquire steam, enabling the crypto market cap to leap to a new all-time high of $217.1 billion.

Bitcoin Price Pierces $7,000

The bitcoin price posted a 7% recovery on Wednesday, enabling it to climb nearly $500 in the past 24 hours alone. Since November 12, when the bitcoin price briefly crashed as low as $5,519, the flagship cryptocurrency has recovered by approximately $1,500, bringing it ever closer to the high-water mark it set last week shortly after the SegWit2x hard fork was called off. The bitcoin price is now trading at a global average of $7,004, which translates into a $116.8 billion market cap.

Several factors have contributed to this rally, most notably the fact that Man Group, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, stated yesterday that the launch of bitcoin futures contracts will convince it to make bitcoin part of its “investment universe”. However, traders are likely also bullish on the fact that mobile financial services application Square Cash is testing bitcoin integration and has already rolled the feature out to some users.

Ethereum Price Tests $340

The ethereum price continued its slow — but steady — advance on Wednesday, climbing another 3% to a present value of $338. Ethereum now has a market cap of $32.3 billion, bringing the second-largest cryptocurrency to its highest point since mid-October.

Bitcoin Cash Price Retreats

Bitcoin and bitcoin cash have taken inverse trajectories in recent days, and that phenomenon repeated itself — in direction if not degree — on Wednesday. While bitcoin and nearly every other major cryptocurrency experienced gains against the dollar, the bitcoin cash price declined 4%, reducing it to a current value of $1,289. Bitcoin cash has a market cap of $21.7 billion, making it approximately two-thirds the size of ethereum.

Market Swells at the Seams

Wednesday marked one of the most comprehensive crypto market advances in recent weeks, with 88 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies ending the day in positive territory.

The ripple price increased by 2%, while the litecoin price added 6% to rise to $65. The dash price recovered by 5% following Tuesday’s pullback and is now trading at $437. NEO’s 6% increase enabled it to broach the $30 barrier once again, and the monero price rose 1% to $124.

The competition for the last two spots in the market cap top 10 has been fascinating to watch this month, as no cryptocurrency has been able to cement its place in this echelon of the rankings. Today, IOTA burst into the ninth spot with a 19% increase, while NEM maintains the 10th position with a 3% gain. That makes ethereum classic, now ranked 11th, the odd token out.