#Crypto market passes $3 trillion in value as bitcoin surges

The total value of the cryptocurrency market shot past $3 trillion Monday morning as the price of bitcoin and other major cryptos rose in a bull market.

The sector’s overall market cap rose by about 3.6 percent in the past 24 hours, pushing it above $3 trillion for the first time Monday morning, according to pricing data from CoinGecko.

The price of bitcoin swelled by more than 6 percent over the same period and was last seen trading at $65,931 per coin, just shy of its all-time high, which it notched last month.

At the same time, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world, powered higher to a new all-time high above $4,700 per coin. The digital coin was up more than 2.5 percent over the past 24 hours.

The third- and fourth-biggest tokens, Binance Coin and Solana, fell over the past 24 hours but have posted huge rallies of more than 20 percent over the past week.

But the crypto industry is notoriously volatile, which is arguably much of the appeal for speculators who hope to predict massive price run-ups.

Last month, when bitcoin approached similar price levels, it quickly fell back a few thousand dollars per coin.

And before that, in April, the price of bitcoin reached close to its current price before seeing a major correction that slashed its value in half before it came roaring back.

Other smaller cryptocurrencies pose an even greater risk to investors. Many have seen extremely volatile price moves doubling or having their value halved in a day at times.

Beyond the volatility of the sector, a handful of extremely small coins have ended up being outright scams in which developers take off with all the invested funds.

Still, the overall size of the market has grown explosively this year. The total value is almost four times higher than it was at the end of last year.