Crypto update: Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) surge higher

The bitcoin (BTC) price and the rest of the cryptocurrencies have had a wild but mostly positive weekend. Here's what you need to know…

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It has been a wild but mostly positive weekend of trade for the cryptocurrency market with gains being seen across the board. This increased the total value of the market to half a trillion U.S. dollars according to Coin Market Cap.

Here is what you missed:

The bitcoin (BTC) price rose as high as US$11,349 per token over the weekend before tumbling 9% lower back to US$10,326. It has since rebounded once again and sits at US$10,940, giving the world's largest cryptocurrency a market capitalisation of US$184.6 billion.

Despite a warning from its founder that cryptocurrencies could fall to zero, the Ethereum (ETH) price is up around 2.5% since the end of last week to US$950.02 per coin. This has left Ethereum with a market capitalisation of US$92.9 billion.

The Ripple (XRP) price has risen 2.5% over the weekend to US$1.15. At one stage Ripple had climbed as high as US$1.21 before the popular altcoin gave back these gains. This gives XRP a market capitalisation of US$44.9 billion. Last week Western Union confirmed that it was trialling Ripple's technology for international money transfers.

After reaching as high as US$1,641 this weekend, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price has given back some gains but is still almost 9% higher than Friday's close at US$1,537 per coin. The bitcoin spin-off now has a market capitalisation of US$26.1 billion.

Litecoin (LTC) spent the weekend consolidating after a remarkable 44% gain over the last seven days. The Litecoin price is at US$220 this morning, giving it a market capitalisation of almost US$12.2 billion. The popular cryptocurrency has been on fire since the announcement of the upcoming launch of its LitePay payment processing technology and a hard fork this week which will see the launch of Litecoin Cash.

What's next?

With sentiment remaining very positive in the industry, I suspect there could be more gains ahead this week for the market.

However, it is worth remembering that things can change very quickly, making these cryptos extremely high risk investments.

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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