Friday, May 3 — the crypto markets have rallied today, with bitcoin (BTC) breaking new 2019 highs. All the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are seeing significant gains over the past 24 hours, as well as over the past 7 days to press time.
Market visualization from Coin360
Bitcoin has broken multiple price thresholds over the day, having surged to as high as $5,854 from an intraday low of $5,448. At press time, the biggest cryptocurrency is trading at
$5,808, up 6.5% over the past 24 hours. Following a significant price surge, bitcoin is up almost 10% over the past 7 days.
Bitcoin’s dominance has also increased, up from 54.5% at the beginning of the day to 55.2% at press time.
Bitcoin 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, surged about 5%, trading at around $170 at press time and seeing 8.3% growth over the past 7 days.
Ether 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
XRP, the second-top altcoin, rose 2.4%, trading at $0.312 at press time. Over the past 7 days, the cryptocurrency is up 5.7%.
Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Total market capitalization spiked to as high as $187 billion today, down to $186 billion at press time. Daily trading volume has again broken $50 billion to account for more than $56 billion at press time.
Total market capitalization 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Cosmos (ATOM) is seeing the biggest gains over the day, up more than 10%. Ranked 15th on CoinMarketCap, the altcoin is now trading at 4.8%, while the coin’s market capitalization accounts for $950 billion.
Earlier today, citing an analyst at market strategy firm Fundstrat Global Advisors, Bloomberg reported that bitcoin’s price may pull back soon, but the accumulation phase is not yet over.
Also today, the Wall Street Journal reported that social media giant Facebook is seeking a $1 billion investment to develop its rumored cryptocurrency project Facebook Coin. According to the report, Facebook is now discussing potential backing from major payment operators Visa and MasterCard.
Yesterday, American asset management firm Fidelity Investments published the results of a survey claiming that 22% of institutional investors already own digital assets.
Also on May 2, Intercontinental Exchange Inc, the owner of institutional crypto trading platform Bakkt, told Reuters that it took advantage of the bear market to buy crypto assets at a discount.