Bitcoin Shoots Past $1T Market Cap Again But Ethereum Steals The Show With NFT Crypto Craze

Bitcoin BTC/USD market capitalization surpassed the $1 trillion level late Monday night at press time but it was Ethereum ETH/USD, the runner-up in terms of market cap, that was stealing the show.

What Happened: BTC traded 6.65% higher at $53,844.15 at press time on a 24-hour basis, while ETH was up 7.25% at $1,843.42.

Ethereum has been buoyed by the frenzy surrounding non-fungible tokens in recent days. 

In sympathy with the NFT craze, governance tokens of NFT projects too have rallied. Monavale MONA/USD the token of the fashion auction exchange platform was the top gainer at 52.29% at $1,748.13, as of press time.

Other such tokens that have been on the way up are Wax WAXP/USD which shot up 37.71% to $0.192 and Enjin Coin ENJ/USD was higher by 9.49% to $1.82.

See also: Best Cryptocurrency

Enjin soared over 39% on Monday thanks to recent positive news and Ethereum dragging its feet on fee reform.

Chiliz CHZ/USD, a native token of the eponymous sports blockchain platform has soared over 200% in the seven days leading up to Monday.

The token traded 76.11% higher at $0.241 at press time.

See also: What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)?

Why It Matters: There has been an intense buzz around NFTs in recent days as multiple artists like Grimes, partner of Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk, Beeple, and Lindsay Lohan releasing artworks using the technology. 

On Monday, a now-destroyed artwork by Banksy — “Morons” — sold as an NFT token for over $394,000. Injective Protocol INJ/USD was the firm behind the Banksy buy.

Yum! Brands, Inc YUM subsidiary Taco Bell too has jumped on the NFT bandwagon by releasing Taco-themed art, which sold out soon after it was made available on the Rarible marketplace.

Apart from the NFT buzz, ETH is also set to benefit from an update this summer that would result in a reduction in the total number of tokens in use.

Read Next: Beyond Bitcoin: China's Publicly-Listed Beauty App Meitu Buys $22M Ethereum