coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- The cryptocurrency market cap is back above $1 trillion after an increase of almost 8%
- Bitcoin is now at its highest price levels in July, but wasn't able to breach $40,000
- A report from City A.M. cites an unnamed source as saying that Amazon plans to accept cryptocurrency payments and even launch its own token
Crypto market spikes as Bitcoin approaches $40,000
The cryptocurrency market is enjoying positive momentum at the moment, with the total market cap hitting $1.53 trillion after increasing by 7.8% in the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin was hovering around the $34,000 mark for the majority of Sunday, but began creeping upwards at around midnight UTC. The big spike came when the price of BTC crossed $36,000, and shot up all the way to $39,200. Bitcoin is now holding the $38,000 price level after a brief consolidation period. Bitcoin is trading above $36,000 for the first time since June 29, and Bitcoin dominance hit 46.7% after a 1% uptick.
Ethereum established some more distance from the $2,000 price level, with the London upgrade expected to go live on the blockchain around August 4.
The Bitcoin price surge was also accompanied by plenty of action in the altcoin markets. AMP is leading the cryptocurrency top 100 with 24-hour gains of almost 50%. RUNE also displayed a lot of strength after the token’s price was suppressed by two major exploits that affected THORChain this month.
FLOW and AXS, two tokens that were performing very well before today’s cryptocurrency market rally, displayed muted performances and are currently posting slightly negative 24-hour changes.
According to cryptocurrency derivatives aggregator Bybt, around $1.13 billion worth of positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours. Unsurprisingly, the traders that were caught off-guard by the sudden price surges were primarily on the short side. On Bybit, the exchange that saw the most liquidations, 84.7% of the liquidated positions in the last 24 hours were short positions. The figures were comparable on other popular derivatives trading venues like OKEx, Huobi, Binance Futures, BitMEX and Bitfinex.
Report about Amazon's crypto ambitions boosts market sentiment
The sudden crypto rally might be connected to a report from City A.M., which cites an unnamed source as saying that E-commerce giant has plans of accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Cardano. In addition, the report claims that Amazon is also interested in launching its own native token in 2022 that would facilitate a loyalty program.
While a recent job opening at Amazon makes it clear that the company is indeed exploring the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, it’s worth keeping in mind that the City A.M. report is only citing one unnamed source and Amazon hasn’t commented on the report yet.