Bitcoin market value exceeds $40 billion, with Chinese market price surpassing that of the U.S. for the first time in months

The prices of tokens on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains — BTC and ETH — have hit new all-time highs simultaneously.

The price of Bitcoin in US dollars has now easily exceeded $2,500, and as of press time, the price of Bitcoin on major Chinese Bitcoin exchanges has generally exceeded 18,000 RMB (about $2,600), which is the first time in recent months that the price of Bitcoin in the Chinese market has exceeded the price in the US market. According to CoinMarketCap data as of press time, the total market value of Bitcoin has exceeded $40 billion for the first time, currently reaching $42 billion, while ETH has surpassed Ripple to regain the throne of the second largest cryptocurrency with a market value of more than $17 billion. At about 13:30 UTC, the price of ETH reached $228.37, surpassing the record of $201.75 set by ETH on May 22, but at press time, the price of ETH has fallen back to about $188.18.

The record highs in Bitcoin and Ethereum prices come at a time when investment in the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to expand, including other cryptocurrencies such as Zcash, which have hit multi-month or even all-time highs.

Corporate interest in cryptocurrencies skyrocketed

Several analysts pointed to the recent surge in the appeal of crypto assets as the reason for the rise, and Fidelity CEO publicly expressed his enthusiasm for Bitcoin and Ethereum at the Consensus 2017 conference yesterday.

Fidelity’s announcement coincided with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) — a consortium focused on enterprise applications of Ethereum technology — announcing that it had nearly tripled its membership, news that played a major role in the rise in ETH prices.

As previously reported by Babbitt, the EEA announced the addition of 86 new members, including large companies Merck, Samsung and Toyota.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase announced that they would seek to leverage Zcash’s underlying open-source technology, a move that sent Zcash’s price up nearly 100% that day, with analysts believing the move is likely to send its price higher further this week.