Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and other major cryptocurrencies traded in the green on Wednesday night as the global crypto market cap rose 1.16% to $1.54 trillion.
What Happened: The apex cryptocurrency traded near the key $40,000 mark trading 1.98% higher at $39,789.05 over 24 hours. For the week, BTC is up 23.63%.
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) was up 0.42% at $2,291.05 over 24 hours. Over the week, ETH traded 14.3% higher.
See Also: How To Buy Ethereum (ETH)
Meme cryptocurrency, Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) traded 0.68% higher at $0.20. Over a seven-day trailing period, DOGE is up 6.17%.
DOGE traded 1.13% lower against BTC and 0.24% higher against ETH over 24 hours.
THORChain (CRYPTO: RUNE), the token of a project that aims to make crypto liquid, was the top gainer on Wednesday and traded 18.08% higher at $4.63 over 24 hours. For the week, RUNE is up 7.09%.
THORChain said last week that the project suffered a “sophisticated attack” but the hacker “deliberately limited their impact.”
Other gainers over 24 hours on Wednesday included Terra (LUNA), AMP (CRYPTO: AMP), and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP).
LUNA rose 15.23% to $10.92, AMP traded 14.62% higher at $0.78, and XRP was in the green 11.25% higher at $0.71.
XRP shot up 9.32% and 10.83% respectively against BTC and ETH.
Why It Matters: Profit-taking prevented Bitcoin from easily shooting past the $40,000 levels, as per some analysts, which means the current rally may take a breather.
“BTC easily broke through $35K, but I think it will probably have a harder time going through $40K this time,” said Justin Chuh, a senior trader at Wave Financial, reported CoinDesk.
“Miners & sellers are coming in to cash out once more and buyers unable to push it higher after absorbing that hit,” said Chuh.
The analyst reportedly said that BTC was rejected again by its 200-day moving average like in early June “but it should try again after a breather, and hopefully not crawling lower than $35K.”
In the first half of 2021, ETH outperformed all key benchmarks assets including BTC, as per a Coinbase report.
ETH’s trading volume across major exchanges rose more sharply compared with that of the apex coin in the previous six months. While BTC volume rose by 489%, ETH volume spiked by 1,461%.
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