Bitcoin
Bitcoin rose as much as 5.5% on Monday. Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

New York: The cryptocurrency market is now worth more than $3 trillion.

As of 7.38am in London (11.38am UAE time), the overall market cap of cryptocurrencies hit $3.01 trillion, according to CoinGecko pricing. The third- and fourth-biggest tokens, Binance Coin and Solana, have added more than 20 per cent in the past seven days; all of the seven biggest coins are up over the last week.

Bitcoin rose as much as 5.5 per cent on Monday to $66,339, nearing its previous record of about $67,000. Ether advanced as much as 3 per cent to a new high of $4,768.

Elon Musk changes Twitter name, leaves internet confused
It's Monday and Twitter is breathlessly trying to figure out the meaning behind Elon Musk's Twitter name change to "Lorde Edge".

Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Dogecoin, guessed it's an anagram for "Elder Doge."

Also worth noting that Musk's location is now "Trollheim". - Bloomberg

Of course, crypto is notoriously volatile. The last time Bitcoin reached these levels, it fell back several thousand dollars, and it’s undergone multiple corrections that take it down by half or more. Other coins are even more volatile - the memecoins bounce back and forth wildly at times - and scams and hacks occur with some frequency.

The crypto market has already roughly quadrupled from its 2020 year-end value, as investors have gotten more comfortable with established tokens and networks like Ethereum and Solana continue to upgrade and attract new functionality. Excitement about the possibilities of decentralised finance and non-fungible tokens is growing, and memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu continue to attract attention.

Bitcoin’s current rally has been fueled by the US trading debut of a Bitcoin-linked ETF as well as Elon Musk’s weekend Twitter poll, said Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at crypto exchange AAX. “With Shiba and other memecoins having surged recently, and Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, interest in altcoins continues to rise.”