Crypto crosses the trillion-dollar market cap for the first time in five weeks

Following what can only be called a catastrophic second quarter, the cryptocurrency market has finally risen back as it once more crossed the trillion-dollar mark on Monday, July 18. The crypto market has crossed this cap after a gap of almost five weeks. This event comes amid three cryptocurrency firms undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and Ethereum’s upcoming software transition to a proof of stake asset.

According to Yahoo Finance, Ethereum is up 30% over the last week, trading at $1,481 per unit. Experts credit this significant increase to optimism for its new function on the blockchain. Matthew Hougan, the chief investment officer for BitWise, predicted that Ethereum would become “the asset of choice in the second half of 2022.”

While Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, was trading at $22,000 per unit for most of Monday, this is only a 10% increase over last week’s rates. In April, Bitcoin was valued at $42,000 per unit before plummeting by almost 60% to an all-time low of just $17,744 per coin on June 18. According to the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index, market sentiment for this crypto has increased threefold since that fateful June day. Yet the indicator shows that moods around Bitcoin are still in the “extreme fear” area.

The Bitcoin crash is thought to have propelled Ethereum’s increase. After June 18, this asset recovered approximately 4% of the market share and saw a rise of 14% to 17.7% on Monday morning. Noelle Acheson of Genesis Trading suggests this upward swing could indicate an increased sense of recovery in the volatile crypto market.

The past seven days have seen steady price improvements across the industry. It has been a welcome change since the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD in late May. This event sent shockwaves through the digital currency space and resulted in Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, and Celsius Network filing for bankruptcy. On July 12, a federal judge froze all of Three Arrows’ assets as its co-founders have disappeared. This is a severe blow to the other two firms as Three Arrows owes Celsius $40 million and Voyager $650 million.

Whether or not these firms will be able to pay back customers will have a tremendous impact on investors as they gauge the trustworthiness of this high-stakes industry.