Digital asset market has once again achieved a cumulative value of $1 trillion, as bitcoin (btc) and ethereum (eth) have both seen dramatic increases in their prices. bitcoin (btc) hit a two-month high of $21,446 late on sunday night, while ethereum (eth) is currently trading at $1,548, according to coingecko. bitcoin (btc) dominates the market with a 40% share, followed by ethereum (eth) with 18.3%.
Surge in prices began last week in anticipation of the release of the federal reserve’s december consumer price index report. bitcoin mining difficulty then rose more than 10% to a new all-time high of 37.59 t from 34.09 t on sunday. this difficulty is adjusted every two weeks and the next adjustment is estimated for january 28. altcoins such as avalanche (+38.9%), near (+34.4%), aave (+33.3%), and polkadot (+21.8%) have also posted double-digit weekly gains, with solana (sol) seeing a dramatic rise of over 64%.
Surge in prices is largely attributed to the cooling inflation in the u.s. economy, as well as the return of confidence in the market. difficulty increase is largely an indicator of a strong and growing network, and miners need to spend more resources to generate the same amount of coins as before. bitcoin and ethereum both soared over 20% this past week, with ethereum posting a 20.7% increase.
https://decrypt.co/119291/bitcoin-ethereum-rally-week-crypto-market-reclaims-1t
