Hot on the heels of bitcoin surging to multi-month highs, other major cryptocurrencies are also posting big moves upward.
As of 10:41 a.m. HK/SIN, the price of ethereum had surged 20.82 percent in 24 hours to $171.49, according to data from Coindesk. Ripple’s XRP token also skyrocketed 14.64 percent to approximately $0.359.
Ethereum and XRP are the second and third-largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, according to Coinmarketcap. While bitcoin has by far the largest market cap of any digital token, ethereum and XRP hold the second and third positions, respectively.
Data from Coinmarketcap also showed that more than $86 billion had been traded in the cryptocurrency space over the last 24 hours, as of 10:46 a.m. HK/SIN.
For its part, Bitcoin jumped more than 21 percent higher over 24 hours to $5,062.57, according to Coindesk.
One expert told CNBC on Tuesday that one potential catalyst behind the surge in bitcoin was likely tied to a Reuters report of a private buyer purchasing more than $100 million worth of bitcoin over a short period.
Given the small daily trading volume of bitcoin, “that order would be enough to have an impact,” said Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, which is in the process of applying for the first-ever bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Still, Horsely said: “Crypto is famous for a long history of volatility like this. It’s always hard to pin down the true impetus, and often the real source is not obvious.”
Other possible reasons for the surge include the crossing of an important technical level at the $4,200 price triggering a stop-loss trade. (In bitcoin and other assets, traders will often set a certain level for when they automatically cover their shorts.)
Bitcoin prices have seen a relatively calm 2019 after last year’s volatility. The cryptocurrency fell roughly 75 percent in 2018 after climbing to a high of almost $20,000 at the end of 2017.
— CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report.
