Cryptocurrency markets have moved into overdrive overnight with strong gains across the board.
This has led to the total cryptocurrency market adding an additional US$33 billion to its market capitalisation. The combined value of the market now stands at just over US$450 billion.
Here is the state of play on Thursday morning:
The bitcoin (BTC) price has raced almost 7% higher over the last 24 hours to US$9,266 per token according to Coin Market Cap. This gain means that the world's largest cryptocurrency now has a market capitalisation of US$156.3 billion.
The Ethereum (ETH) price has performed strongly during the period, rising 7% to US$908.23. Ethereum's market capitalisation has increased to US$82.6 billion.
The Ripple (XRP) price has bounced back from yesterday's decline and carved out a gain of 6% to US$1.09. This push higher means that the altcoin's market capitalisation has now increased to approximately US$42.6 billion.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has added 7% to its value during the last 24 hours with a climb to US$1,333 per token. This has taken the bitcoin spin-off's market capitalisation up to US$22.6 billion.
The world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency is now Litecoin (LTC). An incredible 30% gain to US$206.56 during the last 24 hours has given it a market capitalisation of US$11.4 billion, US$1.4 billion ahead of Cardano (ADA). The Cardano price only managed a 3% increase to 38.8 U.S. cents.
Litecoin has been on fire ahead of its hard fork next week. This hard fork will result in the launch of Litecoin Cash.
What happened?
According to CNBC, cryptocurrency markets have responded positively to reports that South Korean officials intend to take a toned down approach to regulation changes. Previously there had been fears that cryptocurrency exchanges were going to be closed down, but this seems unlikely now.
Should you invest?
With sentiment becoming increasingly positive it seems likely that bitcoin will make a push for US$10,000 per token later this week.
Whilst this makes it a tempting investment option, it is worth remembering how quickly things can change. In light of this, I think investors would be better off watching on from a safe distance instead of risking hard-earned money in the cryptos.
