Bitcoin market cap increases by $40B as BTC price makes play to retake $43k News ▸ Bitcoin ▸ Price Watch
Bitcoin market cap increases by $40B as BTC price makes play to retake $43k
BTC's positive rally also influenced top alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Cardano, and others.
2 min read
Updated: Dec. 14, 2023 at 10:59 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Bitcoin’s market cap surged over $40 billion in the past 24 hours, propelling the leading digital asset’s value up by approximately 5% to briefly surpass $43,000 before retracing slightly, according to CryptoSlate’s data.
This upward movement marks a reversal from a recent dip in BTC’s value earlier in the week, causing significant losses for traders anticipating further price hikes.
Bitcoin’s fortunes took a turn after the Federal Reserve hinted at future interest rate cuts during its December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The officials projected a potential decline to 4.6% by the end of next year, indicating approximately three 25-basis point cuts from the current Fed funds rate of 5.25%.
Markus Thielen, Matrixport’s head of research, highlighted that after the Fed concluded its rate hikes and maintained rates for around seven months in 2019, Bitcoin prices soared nearly 300%.
Thielen further explained that crypto tends to face challenges in low liquidity environments, as observed in 2022. However, it thrives when there’s a shift in expectations towards future ample liquidity, clarifying the reason for Bitcoin’s decline in 2022 and subsequent rise in 2023.
So, he concluded that:
“Even if the SEC still disapproves of Bitcoin Spot ETFs in January 2024, we will likely see higher crypto prices in 2024.”
Large-cap altcoins rally
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price increase positively impacted the prices of large-cap alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Avalanche, Cardano, Solana, etc.
Data from CryptoSlate shows that Ethereum’s value increased by more than 4% to $ 2,277 as of press time. CryptoSlate reported a continued shift in the economic model of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with more than $2.5 billion in coins burned since it completed the Merge.
Cardano’s ADA token surged by more than 12% to $0.65, a new yearly high, continuing a recent positive trend pushing its value up 107% on the year-to-date metric. Additionally, decentralized finance activities on the network have witnessed a resurgence, with the total value of assets locked now at an all-time high of $450 million, according to DeFillama data.
Similarly, Solana and Avalanche native tokens recorded substantial gains during the reporting period of around 10%, respectively.
Bitcoin Market Data
At the time of press 10:59 am UTC on Dec. 14, 2023, Bitcoin is ranked #1 by market cap and the price is up 4.63% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $841.46 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $25.03 billion. Learn more about Bitcoin ›
Crypto Market Summary
At the time of press 10:59 am UTC on Dec. 14, 2023, the total crypto market is valued at at $1.62 trillion with a 24-hour volume of $66.09 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 51.99%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Oluwapelumi Adejumo
Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.
Editor Editor 
Liam 'Akiba' Wright
Also known as "Akiba," Liam is a reporter, editor and podcast producer at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change.
Latest Bitcoin Stories
In this article
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Ethereum
$3,163.11
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Solana
$134.446
Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform that utilizes a unique consensus algorithm called “Proof of History” to achieve fast transaction speeds and low fees.
Cardano
$0.45382
Cardano is a decentralized public blockchain and cryptocurrency project and is fully open source.
Avalanche
$34.7204
Avalanche is an umbrella platform for launching decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, financial assets, trading and other services.
Matrixport
Matrixport is a Singapore-based financial services platform that specializes in digital asset management and cryptocurrency services.
Markus Thielen is currently the Head of Research & Strategy at Matrixport, a one-stop digital assets financial services platform where users can invest, trade, and leverage crypto assets.