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$600 Billion: Cryptocurrency Market Cap Sets New Record
Today saw the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency rise above $600 billion for the first time.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 7:17 a.m. Published Dec 18, 2017, 6:50 p.m.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose above $600 billion for the first time today.
Data from CoinMarketCap.com shows that the capitalization rose as high as $603.3 billion, crossing $600 billion around 11:30 UTC. After dipping below that roughly an hour later, it again climbed above that level twice in the following four hours.
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As of press time, the collective market capitalization has dropped back slightly, coming in at roughly $598.7 billion – a figure that represents more than double the market cap of $232 billion seen a month ago.
Among the top-five cryptocurrencies, bitcoin cash has seen the most significant gains. The cryptocurrency, which forked away from the main bitcoin blockchain, is up roughly 22% in the past 24 hours, trading at $2,250 as of press time.
Additional market data shows that the afternoon trading session between 12:00 UTC and 16:00 UTC saw bitcoin cash climb 16%. During that period, cryptocurrencies VeChain and Hshare rose the most, climbing by 31.88% and 28.15%, respectively.
The top-50 cryptocurrencies that experienced declines during that period include siacoin, which fell by 10.12%, and startup Power Ledger's PWR token, the price of which dropped 8.64% during the afternoon session.
The price of bitcoin, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index, has fallen more than 3% since the start of the day's trading, and at press time was trading at $18,437.19.
Hot air balloon image via Shutterstock
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