Cryptocurrency Market Cap Reaches $1.5 Trillion After Bitcoin Rally

The cryptocurrency market cap reached $1.5 trillion on Tuesday after the Bitcoin and Ethereum prices pared recent losses. The market of digital assets is now more valuable than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Australia, which stands at around $1.4 trillion.

Bitcoin has gained 4% in the last 24 hours and briefly touched $50,000 before a slight pullback. It is now trading at just above $49,000 and owns a market cap of more than $916 billion.

The leading cryptocurrency dipped below $46,000 over the weekend due to futures deleveraging. Eager bulls piled into long trades expecting a swift breakout to $50,000 or higher.

Funding rates for Bitcoin futures have steadily increased through February, with some funding rates reaching their highest levels in the past 12 months.

As a result, Bitcoin futures saw over $520 million in liquidated contracts over the past 24 hours. The eager buyback after these liquidations hints at the market’s bullishness after resetting over-eager bullish futures traders.

High positive funding rates signal an increase in long positions, while negative rates indicate a more bearish sentiment. The market typically resets when traders become too one-sided.

Meanwhile, Ether also suffered a sizable drop before gaining back most of the losses. Shortly after setting new record highs above $1,850, it fell almost 10% to roughly $1,660 on Monday. As such, over $313 million in Ether futures were liquidated in the past 24 hours.

Ethereum and multiple assets in the DeFi ecosystem also plunged, only to fully recover and pick up gains along the way. DeFi’s aggregate performance is up 3% in the last 24 hours, along with FTX’s altcoin index perpetual futures, which has surged nearly 20% since Monday’s lows.

Cryptocurrency Market Cap up Nearly 100% This Year

The cryptocurrency market is up nearly 100% since the start of 2021. The recent Bitcoin rally has been fueled by Tesla’s investment and growing institutional interest.

Bitcoin’s current market dominance stands at around 61%, which is down sharply since the start of 2021 because of a significant jump in the prices of altcoins such as Ether, Polkadot, Cardano, Stellar, Dogecoin and Litecoin.