The cryptocurrency market has moved above $1 trillion for the first time since June 13th.
A 2.6% increase in the last 24 hours has seen it reach $1.02tr at the time of writing (7am UK).
Bitcoin and Ethereum hit $22,430 and $1,486 respectively before falling back slightly, their highest levels in more than a month.
Ether is 41% up in a week after gaining 7% in the last day, while Bitcoin is up a more modest 10% and 1% respectively. Scroll down for the latest prices.
It will come as a relief to long-term investors who have witnessed a prolonged nosedive following the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. The bear market was worsened by the bankruptcies of Three Arrows Capital and crypto lender Celsius Networks.
The tremors from these earthquakes saw the overall market fall as low as $800 billion, having topped $3 trillion last year. However after several days of gains, there is now hope that the market has ‘bottomed’.
Bitcoin’s trading volumes rose by 15% in the last day, exceeding $31.6 billion, while the bullish sentiment was helped by a rally in stock markets in Europe and Asia.
Both Bitcoin and Ether are down more than 50% this year.
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Celsius Networks users ‘did not own crypto’
Lawyers for Celsius, speaking at its bankruptcy hearing, have highlighted that its 1.7 million registered users in more than 100 countries gave up title to the crypto deposited into Earn and Borrow accounts.
Its T&Cs highlight that Celsius is free to “use, sell, pledge, and rehypothecate those coins” as it wishes.
The company says it wants to HODL – keep hold of customers’ coins – to stay afloat then sell them when the market has fully turned around, returning more to users than they would get if it liquidated now.
It also revealed plans to mine 15,000 Bitcoin next year through a subsidiary to help with the turnaround, but that claim was met with scepticism on Twitter.
Today was the First Day hearing for the @CelsiusNetwork bankruptcy. I want to take a shower after having listened. Celsius blamed everyone except itself. Celsius has pivoted in how it describes itself, from banking the unbanked to basically being a bitcoin mining company. #ComeOn pic.twitter.com/cWpHzppvll
— David Silver (SILVER MILLER) (@dcsilver) July 18, 2022
Cryptocurrency shorts
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been fined €3.3 million by the Dutch central bank for operating in the Netherlands without registration.
Time Magazine president Keith Grossman wants to migrate all future subscriptions into its TIMEPieces NFTs. He says this would give users exclusive subscription rights and ownership of their data, as well as invitations to events. Users can connect their wallets on the company’s website to authenticate their identity and log in. The average price for a digital subscription to Time Magazine is around $24, while the average price for a TIMEPieces NFT is $1,000. Since launching in September 2021, it has airdropped over 20,000 NFTs, making $10m.
Art and luxury auction house Christie’s is to launch its first venture capital fund, Christie’s Ventures, to invest in emerging technology and FinTech solutions related to art, including blockchain.
Blockchain gaming ecosystem FITCHIN has raised $3.5m seed funding from investors including gaming personalities and sports icons. It also welcomed former Microsoft strategist and crypto entrepreneur Joe McCann as an official advisor.
Meow, a compliant crypto yield offering for corporate treasuries, has closed a $22m Series A round led by Tiger Global with participation from QED Investors, FTX and others.
The FBI has issued a public warning about fraudulent cryptocurrency apps, which have stolen an estimated $42.7m from US investors so far. 244 people have already fallen victim to these apps, which purport to be connected to respected institutions, persuade users to deposit crypto then disappear.
The UK is second only to the United States for cryptocurrency job roles. GlobalData analysis found almost 3,900 vacancies in the US, with almost 1,000 in the UK followed by Canada (386). The top five UK locations for roles were London, Cambridge, Greenford, Manchester and Glasgow (credit SmallBusinessPrices.co.uk).
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Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 20,200 coins is at $1.02 trillion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 2.6% increase in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – gained 1% to around $22,000. BTC is 10% up in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – added 7% to $1,530. ETH is 41% up over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token added 1% to $260, leaving it 15% up over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP fell 2% to 35.8 cents, but its price is 13% up on seven days ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, gained 3% to 48c and is 10% up in a week.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token jumped 4% to $43.57 and is 29% higher than its price a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE climbed 1% to approach 6.7c and is 7% up over seven days.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, grew 3% to $7.63 and is 16% up on its price a week ago.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token rose 1% to $23.49 and is 33% up in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.