Cryptocurrencies are almost back to their record highs. What’s going on there? Chesnot/Getty
Crypto investments peaked in November 2021.
But now crypto is almost back to that level. And it’s not just because of Bitcoin.
It’s hard to explain why cryptocurrencies are back. That means they might as well disappear again.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
It’s April 2024. Sam Bankman-Fried will go to prison for decades. Nobody wants to hear about your Web3 startup or your NFT collection.
But cryptocurrency is hotter than it has been in a long time.
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How come?
Let me be a little more specific: There isn’t much visible interest in people touting cryptocurrencies as building blocks for technologies that will reorder the world. But there is a lot of visible interest in buying cryptocurrencies.
As of this week, the value of the global crypto market is almost $2.5 trillion (equivalent to about €2.3 trillion), according to CoinMarketCap. This brings it closer to its peak of $2.7 trillion. He achieved this in November 2021, a year before the collapse of FTX.
Between these two peaks, the crypto market imploded and fell to around $850 billion (around €784 billion).
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Just to be clear, this is not just about Bitcoin, whose resurgence has been portrayed in the media. Ethereum market cap is nearing its pre-crash peak. Investors have poured a record amount into Solana and Tether. This is despite the fact that Dogecoin, Elon Musk’s favorite memecoin, is still well below the peak it reached in spring 2021. Back then, Musk called Dogecoin a “hustle” on Saturday Night Live – I bought 15 units. And I’m still 72 percent down.
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So why?
One can read various justifications for the renewed interest in cryptocurrencies. Sometimes it’s about institutions getting into the coins through exchange-traded funds, sometimes it’s about what regulators like SEC chief Gary Gensler will or won’t do regarding cryptocurrencies. Also, I’m sure there are people out there who will openly tell you that technical analysis can explain all of this.
But to me that says two things: People are always willing to invest in something today because it went up yesterday – until it stops going up. That’s why you might want to check your Robinhood app and take another look at the coins you bought a few years ago.
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700 percent up: How you can benefit from the crypto rally without coins or ETFs
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