Cryptocurrencies are trading higher in mid-trading on Tuesday, October 7, stabilizing at their highest levels since Monday, the start of the week. Bitcoin hit a new record high of $126,000, benefiting from market uncertainty, a rise in safe-haven assets, and continued institutional inflows into Bitcoin funds.
Cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, are benefiting from political uncertainty resulting from the ongoing US government shutdown since last Wednesday. This has delayed economic data, most notably September employment figures, which were scheduled to be released on Friday. Negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to end the partial shutdown have not yielded any results, according to a White House official, amid anticipation of mass layoffs of federal employees. This has supported increased inflows into safe-haven funds, with investors pumping more than $6 billion into the market since the government shutdown, while supply has fallen to its lowest levels in six years. Figures showed that net inflows into the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds of BlackRock and Fidelity rose by $3.24 billion after the government shutdown, marking the second-highest number since their launch.
The combined market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market, according to Coin Gecko, which lists more than 17,000 cryptocurrencies, rose 0.6% on Tuesday, bringing the market capitalization to $4.37 trillion.
Bitcoin is trading at $124,162,000, up about 0.57% in midday trading today, with its market capitalization rising to $2.478 trillion, registering a rise of more than 10% since last week. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, is up about 2.85% and trading at $4,696,000, with a market capitalization estimated at $566 billion, up 13% in a week.
XRP (Ripple) is stable today, declining by about 0.39%, trading at $2.97 with a market cap of $178 billion.
Dogecoin is up by about 1.35%, trading at $0.2612, with a market cap of $39 billion. Cardano is up by about 0.98%, trading at $0.8576, with a market cap of about $30 billion.
Solana is up by about 0.64%, trading at $231, with a market cap of $126 billion. TRON is up by 0.11%, trading at $0.3447, with a market cap of $32 billion.