February was a notable month for cryptocurrencies and the cryptocurrency industry overall. We saw Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, reach milestones not seen since the start of crypto winter.
As many analysts and investors have announced, a bull market appears to have begun and appears to be following a ‘two-year trend’, with the industry starting to regain the highs it lost in 2022. As a result, the rally propelled the overall market. The pinnacle of the cryptocurrency industry.
Stablecoins remain stable, but the market is expanding.
Stablecoins have joined the cryptocurrency market in a bullish rally, with their market capitalization hitting $140 billion for the first time since December 2022, according to data from DefiLlama.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to have a value pegged to another currency, such as the U.S. dollar, or a commodity, such as gold. Cryptocurrencies account for a significant portion of daily trading volume as many people consider them more useful for everyday transactions.
The slow and steady recovery of the cryptocurrency industry has fostered optimistic sentiment in the community. Driven by investor confidence in cryptocurrency assets and significant developments in the industry, the cryptocurrency market appears to be recovering to achieve the same performance as previous cryptocurrency bull markets.
Stablecoins Market Capitalization hits $140B. Source: DefiLlama
However, the recent expansion of the stablecoin market is not only fueled by positive sentiment. Tether (USDT) is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with over $98 billion, and has continued to expand its reach over the past few years.
This month alone, USDT’s market capitalization increased by $2 billion. Last year, it increased by more than $28 billion. According to data from CoinMarketCap, USDT ranked as the first cryptocurrency by trading volume in the last 24 hours.
Circle’s USDC, ranked 5th by daily trading volume and 7th by market capitalization, also showed notable growth, with a $2 billion increase in market capitalization this month showing signs of recovery.
The stablecoin market capitalization fell from $40 billion in March of last year and then fell for the first time in a year. However, the trading pair’s re-listing on Binance and its recent expansion into international markets has fueled USDC’s ‘resurgence’, as Coinbase recently called it.
Cryptocurrency market capitalization reaches $2 trillion
With the current price of Bitcoin surging to $57,000, the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has reached $2 trillion, with monthly increases of 32.2% and 101.3% over the past year. This milestone has not been achieved since April 2022, when the overall cryptocurrency market cap was $2.1 trillion.
However, Bitcoin’s parabolic surge is not the only reason for this performance, as altcoin market capitalization, which includes all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin, grew by 29.35% in 30 days.
Accordingly, altcoin market capitalization surged 111.6% last year to $255 billion. Likewise, this level has not been seen since April 2022.
The altcoin market has been green throughout February as interest in cryptocurrencies has skyrocketed since the end of last year, fueled by the explosive ETF craze in January.
Crypto market capitalization sitting at $2.09 Trillion in the 30-day chart. Source: TradingView.com
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from Tradingview.com and DeFiLlama.com
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Source: NewsBTC.com