Bitcoin is revolutionizing technology and our entire world. A company beamed bitcoin blockchains from space. Another is launching a Visa debit card using bitcoin, ethereum, and other altcoins for real-world transactions. It raised $80 million in 7 minutes. Filecoin, another altcoin, had an ICO in July and raised $200 million in less than an hour.

The Unicorns That Keep on Giving

There is no doubt that Cryptocurrency is growing at unprecedented rates and to new highs. Even though the concept of blockchain and cryptocurrency is difficult to deeply understand, this new type of currency is becoming increasingly valuable. The Market, the concept, the coins – they’re all unicorns. Doubters thought none of it would succeed. But some traders have become millionaires overnight. And even more are sure to follow suit.

And for the first time, the global cryptocurrency market valuation exceeded $179 billion. 2017 has been a great year for bitcoin. The flagship altcoin keeps breaking its all-time high records. Concurrently, the global crypto market reached $10 billion in early 2017 and hit $100 billion in June. When you take this recent exponential growth into account, it makes more sense why so many skeptics think the “floor will fall out,” leaving many crypto speculators “holding the bag.”

Bitcoin’s the biggest coin of them all, so its ebbs and flows match the global crypto market value. Experts think the coin could reach $15,000 this year, and some say it could reach $20,000 in the next three years. Other big contenders that appear to be following a similar trend are Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.

A Week of Ups and Downs

Markets were looking down earlier this week, but most coins recovered a few days later. Bitcoin surpassed its all-time high and broke $4,800.

Ethereum climbed up further towards $400. 80 of the best 100 digital currencies increased, which bumped the global market to a record-breaking $179+ billion. It’s not yet at its all-time high price from June of $391.51, as it’s currently at $388.96, but it’s getting there. Ethereum’s market cap is $36.7 billion as of right now.

Other Altcoins Are Also Doing Well

Nearly all altcoin markets recovered on Thursday; Ripple and Litecoin increased by 5% and 15%, respectively, and Dash bumped up 2%. Bitcoin Cash increased to $596.

NEM was the only top ten currency to increase more than 10%. NEM price currently sits at $0.337. And its market cap surpassed $3 billion, but it’s bouncing back and forth over and under that cap.

Monero increased almost 5% to $140.41, while IOTA went down a bit to $0.832. OmiseGO reached over a market cap of $1.2 billion, making it the 14th cryptocurrency valued at over $1 billion.

IOTA, NEO, TenX, and Bytecoin are doing a little bit worse than all of their counterparts, but we don’t doubt they’ll recover well over the next few days too. Most altcoins followed Bitcoin’s increase in value.

You can buy almost all of these altcoins on Bittrex, which carries over 250 coins to trade on. The exchange doesn’t allow margin trading yet, but if you really need that feature, just use Kraken instead. You’ll miss out on trading almost any coin, but each exchange has its pros and cons.

Tomorrow, the Next Day, and the Future

With countries like Estonia considering their own tokens, and Burger King using cryptocurrency as a loyalty program in Russia, cryptocurrency hasn’t even reached its full potential yet. It could fully replace fiat currencies to become a more global and mainstream payment system.

We can’t wait to see how cryptocurrency changes the travel industry, how millennials could be retiring with a cryptocurrency pension plan, and how Bitcoin Cash performs on its own for the next few months.

Like this article? Check out some of the latest news on Cryptocurrencies here. Interested in getting in on the action? Check out our cryptocurrency exchange comparison, a collection of five detailed reviews of some of the world’s most popular trading platforms. 

Sources: Futurism, Coindesk, Ethereum World News

The post Global Crypto Market Reaches All-Time High Value At Almost $180 Billion appeared first on iReviews.