The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies surpassed $2.4 trillion as digital currency assets saw price increases. According to data collected from cryptocurrency exchanges, the Bitcoin price reached $67,000, while Toncoin dropped down. However, the market drew support from the Ethereum price spike.
The CoinDesk Market Index, which includes 193 digital assets, is up 3% in the last 24 hours, while the Nasdaq 100 is down 0.1% and the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD), the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, rose 2.5% in the previous 24 hours to $66,917, according to CoinMarketCap statistics. The trading volume was $28.56 billion, down 17%. The most popular cryptocurrency is expected to end the week up 11%.
Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second-largest digital asset, was trading 4.7% higher at $3,088 and headed for a weekly gain of 6.4%. BNB (BNB-USD), the third-largest digital asset by market value excluding stablecoins, rose 2.1% and Solana (SOL-USD), the fourth-largest, was up 5.8%.
XRP (XRP-USD) increased 1%; Toncoin (TON-USD) declined 0.4%; and Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) was up 2.5%. Cardano (ADA-USD) was trading 5.1% higher. The total market value of the cryptocurrency industry was up 3% in the last 24 hours at $2.43 trillion. The total trading volumes decreased 12% to $76.09 billion.
In a related development, crypto lender Genesis Global received court approval on Friday to return about $3 billion in cash and cryptocurrency to its customers in a bankruptcy liquidation, leaving its owner, Digital Currency Group, with no recovery from the bankruptcy.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approved Genesis’ Chapter 11 liquidation plan and overruled an objection raised by DCG, which had argued that Genesis should pay its customers and creditors no more than what the crypto assets were valued at in January 2023, when Genesis filed for bankruptcy.
Crypto prices have risen sharply since Genesis filed for bankruptcy, and DCG and Genesis disagreed over who should benefit from the rise in prices. Bitcoin, for example, was worth $21,084 in January 2023, compared with its current price of $67,000.
Lane rejected DCG’s objection, ruling that even if customer claims were capped at the lower prices, Genesis would have to pay many other creditors, including federal and state financial regulators that had asserted $32 billion in claims, before it was able to give money to its equity owner DCG.
“There are nowhere near enough assets to provide any recovery to DCG in these cases,” Lane wrote. Genesis is paying customers back in crypto where possible, but it does not have enough cryptocurrency to give back everything it owes.
Genesis attorney Sean O’Neal said Friday that the company disagreed with DCG’s assertion that customers could be paid “in full” based on the lower cryptocurrency prices in January 2023.
“We don’t buy into the idea that claims are capped at the petition date value,” O’Neal said. Genesis estimated in February that it would be able to pay its customers up to 77% of the value of their claims, depending on future price fluctuations.
