The Crypto Report: Ethereum Strengthens Crypto Markets While Bitcoin Holds Steady

A bullish Ethereum is keeping the crypto markets in positive territory on Tuesday morning, after breaking well above the US$1,600 barrier on a 6% rally. Traders seem energized ahead of the Ethereum merger which is due to take place this time next week.

Bitcoin, however, has continued to trade sideways and has yet to recover the price of US$20,000 since its descent south four days ago.

The cryptocurrency markets as a whole are trading at US$995 billion as onlookers pay close attention to the trillion dollar mark.

Interestingly, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is one of today’s top performers, having added over 26% to its market capitalization. ETC is a carbon copy of Ethereum and could be seen as a popular alternative for miners once Ethereum exits mining after the merger.

A number of Bitcoin alternatives – namely Bitcoin Gold and Ravencoin – also posted double-digit gains this morning, as did the smaller-cap blockchain network Flux, which entered the top 100 coin chart. . Most large-cap blockchain networks have added green candlesticks over the past 24 hours, with Cardano, Solana, and Avalanche outperforming.

The worst performer today was Helium (HNT), an Internet of Things (IoT) project for decentralized WiFi connectivity, which fell 6% to $480 million. In the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, Curve was among the top performers rising 10% in the past 24 hours, while Lido, Compound Finance, and Aave are also up.

The total value locked across the entire DeFi space is currently US$59.5 billion.