Bitcoin, Ethereum Hit All-Time Highs As Taproot Looms Nearer — Dogecoin, Shiba Inu Spike Alongside

Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD both touched new all-time highs, with the apex coin crossing the $67,000 threshold Monday night, as the global cryptocurrency market cap rose 3.54% to $2.93 trillion.

What’s Moving? BTC spiked 4.56% to $67,687.99 over 24 hours at press time. For the week, it has gained 11.27%. 

On Sunday night, BTC touched an all-time high of $67,673.74. At press time, it was trading 0.19% below that level. Trading volumes rose 45.94% to nearly $39.7 billion over 24 hours.

The second-largest coin by market cap rose 2.36% to $4,800.32 over 24 hours. Over a seven-day period, ETH has risen 11.57%.

ETH also touched an all-time high of $4,822.36 on Sunday night and at press time traded 0.22% below that level. ETH trading volumes rose 31.3% to $18.96 billion over 24 hours.

Dogecoin DOGE/USD was up 5.27% to $0.28 over 24 hours. Over the last seven days, the meme coin has gained 5.66%.

Shiba Inu rose 2.87% to $0.0000565 over 24 hours. For the week it has fallen 19.72%.

Loopring was the top 24-hour gainer at press time, as per CoinMarketCap data. It has risen 40.23% to $2.04 in the period. Over a seven-day time frame, it has shot up 104.83%. 

Loopring has risen 34.42% and 37.37% against BTC and ETH respectively over 24 hours. 

See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Why It Matters: Bitcoin exchange outflows have accelerated, touching over 5,000 BTC net withdrawals daily,  data from on-chain analysis firm Glassnode indicates. 

BTC Net Transfer Volume (7-Day Moving Average) — Courtesy Glassnode

The result of outflows means aggregate BTC exchange balance has declined to multi-year lows of 12.9% of circulating supply. 

“Even as Bitcoin consolidates below ATHs, exchange reserves continue to deplete,” noted Glassnode.

Bitcoin Percent Balance On Exchanges — Courtesy Glassnode

Meanwhile, the fresh BTC and ETH all-time highs come after cryptocurrency markets got a shot in the arm last month with the listing of the first-ever Bitcoin Futures Exchange Traded Fund. 

This week, Bitcoin is expecting a major network upgrade dubbed “Taproot,” the first such event since 2017, which is supposed to enhance its smart contract capabilities, privacy, and efficiency.

Ethereum’s network has seen more coins burned than issued for at least a week, which means the coin has introduced an element of scarcity to its economics.

Anthony Sassano, the founder of The Daily Gwei, wrote in a blog post that ETH has been deflationary for over 7 days in early November.

“Due to the current PoW issuance (4.5%), a deflationary ETH was not something that was expected to happen until The Merge but due to the on-going high fees, the Ethereum network is currently burning almost 13,000 ETH per day or $55 million at time of writing - truly insane when you really think about it.”

The Merge refers to an upgrade that will replace Ethereum’s current proof-of-work mechanism with a proof-of-stake model.

Ethereum’s story in 2021 has been dominated by non-fungible tokens, smart contracts, and decentralized finance, but so-called Ethereum-killers are also emerging as alternatives to the second-largest coin as its network fee spikes and congestion on its blockchain increases.

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