Bitcoin Jumps To $42,300, Ethereum Above $3,000 In Sudden Crypto Market Surge

The global cryptocurrency market cap rose above $2 trillion early on Tuesday, driven by a sudden surge in buying activity across major exchanges.

What Happened: Bitcoin BTC/USD surged above $42,340, gaining 3.4% in over a four-hour time frame on Tuesday morning. Ethereum ETH/USD gained 5.80% over the same period and was trading above $3,011 at the time of writing.

Ethereum Classic ETC/USD led altcoins in terms of daily gains, rallying 14.77% to $43.27. ETC has gained 69% over the past week.

Avalanche (CRYPTO AVAX), Solana SOL/USD, Cardano ADA/USD, and Polkadot DOT/USD gained 4.33%, 4.90%, 7.38%, and 6.25% respectively in the last 24 hours.

Meme-based cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin DOGE/USD and Shiba Inu SHIB/USD saw gains of 2.80% and 4.85%, respectively.

The sudden spike in prices led to $70 million in liquidations over four hours. According to data from CoinGlass, $65.77 million was liquidated from short-sellers alone.

Over the one-hour time period, $25.65 million shorts were liquidated while only $1.53 million worth of longs were liquidated.