market capitalization

Chainlink Flippens Bitcoin Cash by Market Cap, DeFi Push May Take LINK Price Even Higher

Despite a slight correction seen in the last few days, Chainlink (LINK) has continued to rally higher, reaching another new all-time-high, almost reaching $17.

Chainlink has set a new all-time high, the third time in less than two months, reaching $16.98 on Binance. LINK has surpassed Bitcoin Cash (BCH) by market capitalization and claimed the number 5 spot on CoinGecko.

Cane Island Digital Research previously analyzed LINK and predicted that the cryptocurrency would reach $8 by December 2020, and LINK has already exceeded this expectation. According to crypto analytics company Santiment, Chainlink has reached a record high in active addresses, over 15,600.

Investment analyst Timothy Peterson previously predicted the Bitcoin Cash flippening, back in mid-July, before Chainlink showed promising gains. He said that LINK would eventually be worth the combined value of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV (BSV) in terms of market capitalization. He tweeted:

“#ChainLink is a young & promising iteration of Blockchain 3.0 with practical application to nearly every industry on the globe. $BCH and $BSV are cult-of-personality based Blockchain 1.0 that will by washed away by digital fiat. $LINK mktcap should be worth twice these combined.”

Will LINK edge out Tether and XRP?

The decentralized finance (DeFi) space has seen massive growth this year, which could be due to the reasons the demand for oracles, including Chainlink and Band Protocol have spiked. In June, the total value of locked in DeFi protocols have surged by four-fold.

At this rate of injection of capital and steady double-digit gains, Chainlink could be gunning for Tether or even Ripple (XRP)’s spot in terms of market capitalization. However, for LINK to have a chance to flippen Tether at its current market cap at $10.06 billion, Chainlink must be valued at around $28.9. To overtake XRP, Chainlink would need to be valued at $36.53 at Ripple’s current market cap of $12.84 billion.

Peterson said that Chainlink could be valued at $32 by the end of 2020, but prices above $32 might not be sustainable. He added:

“Did some quick analysis of Chainlink’s network growth rate and historical deviations in price put LINK at $32 by the end of the year, but that price would not be sustainable. Investors who buy at high levels risk losing 50% of their investment or more. Most growth priced in already.”

Winklevoss Says Bitcoin Price to Reach $500,000 — Why BTC is Better than Gold and Oil

Bitcoin billionaire Tyler Winklevoss firmly advocates that Bitcoin (BTC) is headed towards a markup of $500,000 in pricing and that it will inevitably be the preferred safe-haven asset on the market, rather than gold.

Winklevoss: Why Bitcoin is the best safe-haven asset

The Gemini co-founder had always touted Bitcoin’s horn and preached that BTC’s recent stealthy performance on the market was merely the beginning of an even bigger bull run. Winklevoss firmly believes that it is only a matter of time before Bitcoin replaces gold as the global market’s preferred safe-haven asset.

Winklevoss did an analysis and compared gold, oil, and the US dollar with Bitcoin. Currently, gold’s market capitalization is estimated to be valued at approximately $9 trillion, while Bitcoin (BTC)’s value is currently sitting at around $200 billion in market capitalization. According to Winklevoss’ predictions, Bitcoin’s value will keep climbing steadily, as it is the only asset that is protected against inflation.

The Gemini co-founder asserted that “Bitcoin is ultimately the only long-term protection against inflation,” with a maximum supply of 21 million BTC.

While gold and oil are critiqued by Winklevoss for being hard to store and to move around, Bitcoin on the other hand can easily transferred as an asset and “can be sent anywhere in the world via the Internet.”

Gold vs. Bitcoin

Winklevoss examined gold and said that the problem with the traditionally viewed safe-haven asset was that no one knew what its actual supply was. Also, with Elon Musk’s plans to mine gold from asteroids, gold’s supply is set to increase, while BTC’s reserve will not, making the digital asset scarcer and therefore more valuable.

Elon Musk’s intentions to mine gold has already been backed by NASA. The US Space Agency had already publicly declared in March that SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, will be the one responsible for launching a mission in space with the objective of conquering the asteroid “Psyche 16.”

Image Source: Tyler Winklevoss

US dollar is going down

As for the US dollar, the hugest dilemma addressed by Tyler Winklevoss is that the dollar lacks stability and is depreciating in value, due to the economic instability and looming inflation. With the coronavirus pandemic impacting global economies and the US bracing for an upcoming round of inflation, Winklevoss pointed out that Americans may be looking at hedge investments such as gold or cryptocurrencies. Taking to his Twitter platform, Tyler Winklevoss stated, “The US dollar is no longer a reliable source of value. Cameron Winklevoss and I make the case for $500K Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin pricing is valued north of $11,353.00 at the time of writing. Winklevoss has been actively promoting Bitcoin for a while, pushing people to invest in the digital asset, as it seems to be the only asset that is protected against inflation. With the cryptocurrency having a maximum cap of 21 million BTC, Winklevoss has therefore publicly touted BTC as the best hedge against inflation.

In recent months, interest in cryptocurrency has soared, as COVID-19 has pushed the dollar to depreciate with the US Federal Reserve mass printing stimulus checks for economic relief purposes. Concerns of inflation increasing at an alarming rate was brought up once again after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Thursday. Powell had confirmed that the Federal Reserve was planning on exceeding its optimal inflation target of 2%.

Winklevoss always believed that the US Federal Reserve’s plans of mass printing stimulus check money were beneficial for Bitcoin. The Gemini co-founder said that it was going to stimulate the surge of BTC pricing on the crypto market. Also, with the current economic turmoil, investors have been looking at cryptocurrencies with renewed interest to secure their assets, in comparison with traditional gold and fiat dollars.

It was reported by crypto exchange giant Coinbase in April that a large amount of Americans had allocated their first COVID-19 stimulus check of $1,200 towards Bitcoin investments, rather than spending it on basic goods and services.

Bitcoin Will Rise to Over $1 Trillion In Next Ten Years, Tesla Investor’s BTC Value Prediction

Bitcoin has had a rollercoaster year amid the COVID-19 pandemic market disruption but has ultimately persevered adding over 40% to its price and now exceeds $200 billion in market capitalization.

The Bitcoin price sat at around $7,000 per Bitcoin token at the beginning of 2020, before crashing to under $4,000 on Black Thursday in March. The Bitcoin price has since rebounded to and sits at around $10,700 per coin at the time of writing.

This year, there has been a marked increase of institutional interest in Bitcoin and maturity in the cryptocurrency market, particularly on Bitcoin’s status as a store of wealth in a time of economic uncertainty.

A prominent investor who correctly predicted the exponential growth of Tesla this year, has now reported that they expect Bitcoin’s market capitalization to exceed $1 trillion and could go as high as $5 trillion during over the course of the next decade.

As reported by Forbes on Oct 4, Ark Invest’s Director of Research Yassine Elmandjra recently released a report to persuade investor’s to stop ignoring Bitcoin’s potential as an asset.

Elmandjra wrote:

“Bitcoin offers one of the most compelling risk-reward profiles among assets, as our analysis suggests it should scale from roughly $200 billion today to $1-5 trillion network capitalization during the next five to ten years.”

Ark Invest previously correctly guided its investors towards investment in electric-car and tech development firm Tesla, a company whose price has increased over 400% this year alone, despite the market disruptions.

Bitcoin: The Last Decade and Beyond

Ark reportedly remains exceptionally optimistic on the Bitcoin price in the decade to come, and it only takes a short look back over the last decade to understand this sentiment.

Bitcoin is by far the highest performing asset of the last ten years, its price increasing from less than a dollar to it all-time-high of $20,000 per Bitcoin token by the end of 2017 before a slight implosion of the crypto market, largely due to bad actors and a run of cash-grabbing initial coin offerings as the crypto market was center stage at this time.

Elmandjra wrote in the Ark report:

“Our analysis suggests Bitcoin is early on its path to monetization, with substantial appreciation potential […] In our view, bitcoin’s $200 billion market capitalization—or network value—will scale more than an order of magnitude to the trillions during the next decade.”

Elmandrja also warned that a number of risks still exist that could completely derail Bitcoin’s coming bull run. While the institutional investment into Bitcoin is encouraging for crypto investors, the analyst says over-institutionalization could destroy Bitcoin’s value proposition and could see a “few trusted parties dominating transactions.”

MicroStrategy acquires $425M worth of BTC

The Chief Executive Officer of the multibillion-dollar business intelligence firm MicroStrategy recently discussed the subject of Bitcoin (BTC), gold, and alternative asset classes. He explained that with the Federal Reserve’s plans to continue pushing inflation above 2%, he felt as if MicroStrategy’s investments were sitting on “a $500 million melting ice cube,” with the depreciation of the US dollar.

This drove him to secure MicroStrategy’s treasury reserve by purchasing $425 million worth of Bitcoin. The bold move made headlines everywhere as MicroStrategy is the first public company to invest most of its reserve monetary supply in BTC.

Tether’s Market Cap Surges By $1 Billion in Just 9 Days to Hit $19 Billion

The market capitalization of leading stablecoin Tether (USDT) has been on a roller coaster ride after surging by $1 billion in a record 9 days to hit $19 billion. Since the start of 2020, its market capitalization has been on a continuous rally, according to Tether and Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino.

USDT’s increased supply

The cryptocurrency sector has been experiencing strong price correction waves. For instance, Bitcoin has been on a price frenzy because, after a bullish rally where the BTC price soared to around $19,500 on certain exchanges. The digital asset underwent a notable price correction, Bitcoin dropping below $16,500.

These price correction waves might have made traders, pundits, and investors to seek alternatives like Tether, as depicted by its massive market cap rally. This latest expansion is the second-fastest one in USDT’s history.

The record was made on September 4, 2020, after it increased by 1 billion in just 8 days. The current Tether’s market cap is pegged at $19 billion, according to crypto data provider coinmarketcap. It, therefore, means there are around 19 billion coins in circulation at $1 each, making it bag position four of the top leading cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP).

Tether’s supply is nearly 5 times its position in February

The data provided by Tether’s CTO shows that the USDT’s market capitalization stood at $4 billion in February and has now increased nearly fivefold to hit $19 billion. USDT is continuously making headlines in the crypto space.

For instance, $100 million worth of Tether was transferred from the Tron network, a blockchain-based decentralized operating system, to the Ethereum blockchain earlier this month.

Furthermore, Tether is favored by Chinese investors based on research by Chainalysis. In August, the blockchain analysis company revealed that crypto assets worth $50 billion exited China in 2019, and Tether made up at least $18 billion of these transfers.

Bitcoin is Now Worth More Than Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway with a Market Value of $540 Billion

Bitcoin is making the crypto space ecstatic due to its incredible bull run this month. After surging past an all-time high (ATH) of $20,000.00 in price in mid-December, the leading cryptocurrency has made headlines by skyrocketing to $29,200 levels, falling shy of the $30,000 mark. It has, however, retraced to $28,990 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

The price surge past $29,000 has made Bitcoin (BTC) worth more than Berkshire Hathaway, an American multinational conglomerate owned by Warren Buffet, whose market capitalization is capped at $539 billion. Bitcoin, on its end, has a market value of around $540 billion. Holger Zschaepitz, a market analyst, noted:

“Bitcoin jumps >$29k and hit another milestone: With a market value of $540bn, Bitcoin is now worth more than Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.”

BTC has enjoyed a rollercoaster ride this month and is set to finish the year with a bang. December 2020 will therefore be written in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency’s history book as the time period with the biggest BTC gains since May 2019. Furthermore, statistics show that BTC has increased by more than 295% in 2020 as the US Dollar Index (DXY) recently slipped to a 32-month low.

Thanks to an overwhelming appetite by institutional investors and economic initiatives like quantitative easing (QE), Bitcoin has enjoyed a heck of a ride as the year comes to an end.

Nevertheless, the CEO of CryptoQuant Ki Young Ju has asked caution to not be thrown to the wind because BTC could correct, as institutional investments has stalled according to the analyst. His sentiments come as crypto traders anticipate Bitcoin will soon break the $30,000 price after today’s new all-time high of $29,200.

After sinking to lows of $3,800 in mid-March, BTC has dusted off and shot to levels not seen before because it is continuously cementing its status as a safe-haven asset. Time will tell what 2021 has in store for Bitcoin.

Theta Makes Its Way to Top 10 Crypto by Market Cap

While there are currently more than 8,900 cryptocurrencies around today, all with distinct and unique features, each one gets more recognition when it grows to become ranked as one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Amid its consistent surge in price in the past weeks, Theta (THETA) has found its way to the top ten cryptocurrencies as seen on CoinMarketCap.

Theta (THETA) is a blockchain-powered network purpose-built for video streaming. The Theta mainnet operates as a decentralized network in which users share bandwidth and computing resources on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis. For a project that was launched in the first quarter of 2019, the journey to the elite range has shown how sustainable the network’s offering has been and its adoption by investors around the world.

Theta has seen a burgeoning increase in its price, currently trading at $14.30, up 24.17% in the past 24 hours, 114.22% in the past week. Theta is also amongst the few digital currencies that have been observed to share a limited correlation with Bitcoin (BTC). The coin currently has a market cap of $14,819,648,814 after seeing a 20627.7% growth year-over-year.

Theta set a new all-time high price record earlier as its Mainnet 3.0 Launch is anticipated for April

Cryptocurrencies That Made Top 10 Ranking in the Past Months

The volatility inherent in the crypto space accounts for the massive price swings that can either propel a coin to new heights or demote some that are already highly ranked. In the past months, cryptocurrencies including Polkadot (DOT), Binance Coin (BNB), Uniswap (UNI), and Chainlink (LINK) have wriggled their way to the top ten cryptos by market cap.

Attaining the elite ranking is a feat, but sustaining the growth is an even bigger challenge for most cryptocurrencies. The rise of Theta has pushed Chainlink down to the 11th position on the crypto market.

Ethereum’s Market Capitalization of $500 Billion Will Need To Double to Flip That of Bitcoin

Ethereum (ETH) has been the talk of the town since it hit its new all-time high at the beginning of the week. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency spiked to a new all-time high (ATH) of $4,350 even though it has retraced to $4,316 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum’s remarkable bull run has pushed its market capitalization to the $500 billion level. ETH, therefore, needs to double this value to flip that of Bitcoin, which stands at $1.07 trillion, as alluded to by market analyst Lark Davis.

Moreover, Ethereum’s upward momentum is triggering a rise in Ether and Bitcoin’s implied volatility. The implied volatility spread is usually used as an indicator of upcoming shifts in the market, and it previously stood at 30%. It therefore means that crypto traders might be shifting their primary focus to Ethereum, in comparison with Bitcoin (BTC).

BTC has been struggling to maintain its dominance. It recently dropped to 44%, which is the lowest level it has gotten since 2018.

Ethereum’s journey to $5,000

According to crypto trader Carl Martin tweeting under the pseudonym The Moon:

“Ethereum to $5,000 is a matter of days.”

A price surge towards $5,000 is anticipated by many, as acknowledged by Skew. The crypto data provider explained:

“Large ETH open interest building up on $5k strike.”

Ethereum’s bull cycle has been supported by the boom in decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) sectors. Furthermore, the anticipated launch of Ethereum 2.0 has also played a pivotal role in ETH’s uptrend.

More investments continue to trickle in to the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract as the total value locked has reached a record-high of $18.86 billion, according to data by on-chain metrics provider Glassnode.

Additionally, the number of ETH addresses holding more than 0.01 coins has gotten to an ATH of 15,28 million. As the clock ticks, time will tell whether Ethereum will hit the psychological price of $5,000 soon.

Bitcoin’s Dominance Skyrockets as Market Capitalization Tops $1 Trillion

Bitcoin’s latest momentum has made the market capitalization top the $1 trillion mark, a milestone first seen in February.

The leading cryptocurrency was up by 5.91% in the last 24 hours to hit $54,517 with a capitalization of $1.03 trillion during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

Santiment believes Bitcoin’s dominance and price have been driven by a surge in token circulation. The on-chain metrics provider explained:

“Bitcoin dominance has been on a major rise the past couple of days, and $54.6k has been breached for the first time since May 12th. Our NVT Token Circulation model is indicating October is the first month we’re seeing a bullish divergence since February.”

Santiment previously stated that Bitcoin’s price could witness a surge given that its circulation had reached levels last seen in July. The notion presented was that Bitcoin’s price is usually tagged along whenever circulation rises.

Will an ATH price be witnessed in the Bitcoin market soon?

According to Lex Moskovski, the CIO of Moskovski Capital,said:

“Record amount of Bitcoin has been moved in the last 2 weeks. Something’s brewing. Gun to head, ATH may happen sooner than we think.”

Therefore, Moskovski believes the record-high BTC transactions witnessed could send the price through the roof, given that an all-time high (ATH) price of $64.8K was set in mid-April.

By scaling above the $52K level, Bitcoin was able to breach a significant resistance area. Data analytic firm IntoTheBlock said:

“Bitcoin surpasses once again the $52K barrier for the first time since September 7th. The IOMAP reveals strong support right below $50K while approaching a highly contested area around $52,938. At this range, over 353.78K addresses previously bought 212,000 BTC.”

On the other hand, market analyst under the pseudonym CryptoHamster noted:

“Bitcoin has broken the resistance line – and the descending triangle (to the upside). Generally, it is a very bullish sign. Altcoins also support this growth, but one has to be careful about the false breakouts. It would be nice to see the retest and rejection.”

CryptoHamster believes that Bitcoin should retest the $51K level for a breakout to be fully confirmed.

Cardano Elbows Ripple to Take 6th Position, Thanks to Heightened Development Activity

Cardano (ADA) has been scaling the heights because it is now the sixth-largest cryptocurrency after dethroning Ripple (XRP) with a market capitalization of $20.71 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Cardano is going through the roof based on factors like increased development activity. Market insight provider Santiment explained:

“Cardano is one of many altcoins that have enjoyed a great start to the week. Development activity has hit AllTimeHigh levels, as ADA’s team worked on innovating while prices were suppressed.”

Source: Santiment

Cardano is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, which is designed to be a scalable, sustainable, and flexible network for running smart contracts needed when developing decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and new crypto tokens.

Therefore, Cardano is one of the sought-after networks in the development arena based on the latest trend of flipping Ripple’s market capitalization of $20.14 billion.

Market analyst under the pseudonym Tajo Crypto pointed out:

“Cardano pumped more than 25%, so it flipped XRP to become the 6th largest crypto by market cap. Cardano is doing well with over 5 million assets minted from its network recently. Cardano is also getting ready for the Vasil upgrade in June. ADA is doing well.”

ADA was up by 18.66% in the last seven days to hit $0.6124 during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

Therefore, Cardano seems not to be relenting in its quest to flip other cryptocurrencies. For instance, it elbowed Polkadot (DOT) from the seventh position in January 2021. As a result, it became the biggest proof-of-stake network.

Bitcoin Flips Visa Again

Since the beginning of the year, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 48%, which has caused its market valuation to once again surpass that of the payment processing behemoth Visa.

According to CoinMarketCap, with the price of Bitcoin sitting at $24,365 at the moment, its market size of $470.16 billion is now only slightly more than that of Visa, which has a market cap of $469.87 billion at the moment.

Companies Market Cap reports that this is the third time Bitcoin has “flipped” Visa’s market cap, meaning that Bitcoin’s value has exceeded Visa’s value.

The first occasion was in late December 2020, coincidentally coinciding with the first time that BTC reached $25,000 in value.

This was accomplished during a price rise that saw BTC climb from $10,200 in September 2020 to $63,170 seven months later in April 2021. The price increase lasted for seven months.

BTC was able to take the lead over Visa for a very short period of time on October 1 before the payments business was able to reclaim their position as the market leader. Visa regained the lead between June and October 2022.

This advantage was further extended when, between November 6 and 10, 2022, the failure of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX took off more than $100 billion from the value of BTC in only four days.

However, since that time, BTC has had a complete recovery and has added an extra $65 billion to its market valuation of $408 billion as of November 6. This has allowed it to surpass the payment processing behemoth.

Because of the relatively tiny gap in their respective market caps, Bitcoin and Visa are now trading places on an hourly basis, which is something that should be taken into consideration.

Regarding the remarkable beginning that Bitcoin had in 2023, its third “flipping” of Visa occurred on the heels of a run of 14 days in a row during which the price increased. This run lasted from January 4 through January 17.

According to Google Finance, the market capitalization of Mastercard, the world’s second-largest payment processing network, is now $345.24 billion. BTC, on the other hand, has a significant lead over Mastercard.

However, Bitcoin is still trading at a discount of 63% compared to its all-time high of $69,044 that it hit on November 10th, 2021.