It seems there’s never a dull week in cryptocurrencies. In the most recent period, Elon Musk’s support for Bitcoin and a record runup in Ether helped take the market value of digital tokens to an all-time high.
Billionaire Musk also posted tongue-in-cheek tweets about Dogecoin -- a Shiba Inu-themed unit that began as a joke -- stirring buying that drove its market capitalization past US$6 billion ($8.01 billion). The value of more than 6,000 tokens tracked by CoinGecko was an unprecedented US$1.17 trillion on Thursday.
The developments provide more evidence of the way the casino-like gyrations of digital coins are seeping into the mainstream. High-profile proponents of Bitcoin like Musk say it’s winning broader acceptance in the finance community. Regulators, meanwhile, are stepping up warnings of volatility that could wipe investors out.
“Investor perception is at an all-time high at both the retail and hedge fund levels,” said Jehan Chu, managing partner with blockchain advisory firm Kenetic Capital in Hong Kong.
Even so, many investors still view digital coins as a treacherous sector. That was underlined in the US, where the 24-year-old founder of two New York-based cryptocurrency hedge funds with more than US$100 million in investments pleaded guilty Thursday to securities fraud.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, is up 15% this week, while Ether has risen 26%. Bitcoin was at about US$37,400 as of 1:30 p.m. in Tokyo on Friday.
The token may be consolidating before heading toward a record US$50,000, which would imply a market value for it of about US$1 trillion, said Mike McGlone, commodities strategist with Bloomberg Intelligence.
Ether’s eightfold rally over the past year faces possible turbulence from the impending launch of CME Group Inc. futures next week. The contracts may open the door for bearish investors. The digital coin was at US$1,636, down from a peak of almost US$1,700 on Thursday.
