It’s been a wild week in the markets, but just when you think it can’t get any wilder, in swaggers Elon Musk and a $6k pump in little over an hour. The US isn’t even awake yet – are we just getting started today?
How did we get here? The big story this week has been the WallStreetBets drama, which appeared to reach a crescendo yesterday when brokers including Robinhood and Webull made the decision to suspend trading of GameStop, AMC and other stocks involved in the big Reddit short squeeze. The backlash has been swift and vicious from across both the political spectrum and wider society, with many quick to call it evidence of a rigged system. Whatever their reasoning, it’s been an excellent advert for cryptocurrency and decentralisation. This is one of those rare occasions when Bitcoin does, indeed, fix this.
That brings us to this morning, which has kicked off with huge rises across the board. Bitcoin rose almost $6k in little over an hour – possibly the fastest leap in its history. The total crypto market cap has leapt up almost $100 million. Is this rapid rise part of the Robinhood backlash? Is it all down to Elon Musk’s decision to make his Twitter bio simply ‘Bitcoin’? Will any coins emulate Doge’s ridiculous 200% gains over the past hour? It’s 2021, anything could happen. Hold onto your hats, and more importantly, hold onto your wallets – do your own research before investing, don’t spend more than you can afford, and don’t make rash decisions, no matter how much excitement is in the air.
The content of this article is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or any form of recommendation or invitation. Luno always advises you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.
All information is correct as of 09:30am GMT.
Crypto markets at a glance
| Name | Price | Price Change (24h) | Price Change (7 days) |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $37,622.33 | +20.67% | +19.06% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $1,358.43 | +6.28% | +12.30% |
| XRP (Ripple) | $0.2803 | +9.02% | +3.67% |
| Litecoin (LTC) | $140.42 | +8.88% | -2.28% |
| Bitcoin Cash (BTC) | $416.28 | +7.28% | -4.63% |
Total crypto market cap
The total capitalisation of the entire cryptocurrency market is currently $1,047,617,910,686, up from $921,757,781,505 yesterday.
What bitcoin did yesterday
We closed yesterday, 28 January, 2020, at a price of $31,649.61 – down from $30,432.55 the day before.
The daily high yesterday was $31,891.30 and the daily low was $30,023.21.
This time last year, the price of bitcoin closed the day at $9,358.59. In 2019, it was $3,470.45.
As of today, buying bitcoin has been profitable for…
99.9% of all days since 2013-04-28.
Bitcoin market capitalisation
Bitcoin’s market capitalisation is currently $684,969,969,599, up from $583,723,872,144 yesterday. GameStop’s market cap is currently $13.5 billion, Nokia’s is $21.52 billion, and BlackBerry’s is $8.14 billion. Tesla’s market cap is $791.9 billion, so another $100 billion or so before the re-flipping.
Bitcoin volume
The volume traded over the last 24 hours was $92,201,770,546, up from $67,576,798,880 yesterday. High volumes can indicate that a significant price movement has stronger support and is more likely to be sustained.
Volatility
The price volatility of bitcoin over the last 30 days is 99.04%.
Fear and Greed Index
The sentiment Index continues its bombastic streak, soaring right back up into Extreme Greed – up to 77 again from 55 yesterday. Where to next? Nobody knows. Spin the wheel.