#Cryptocurrency market tops $2T as bitcoin price surges

The total value of the entire cryptocurrency market shot past $2 trillion over the weekend for the first time since May, fueled by a renewed surge in the price of bitcoin and other digital coins.

The price of bitcoin rose higher than $48,100 at one point on Saturday, its highest level since May 17, according to data from Coinbase.

It had pared some of its weekend gains on Monday, with the digital token last seen trading at about $46,500 per coin, up almost 1 percent from 24 hours earlier.

The price of bitcoin is still almost 32 percent lower than its peak of more than $64,000 per coin that it saw in mid-April, but the crypto has seen a rally of about 46 percent from a month ago when it had dropped to about $30,000 per coin.

Other cryptos also helped push the broader market up past $2 trillion. Binance coin, which has a market cap of $71.4 billion, traded 4 percent higher on Monday at $424.60 per coin, according to Coinbase.

Dogecoin was last seen trading more than 8 percent higher, at 33 cents per coin.

The crypto market has faced a number of hurdles since enthusiasm in the sector peaked in the spring.

Renewed scrutiny from the Chinese government of cryptocurrencies and specifically bitcoin mining — the energy-intensive process of producing new bitcoins and verifying transactions of the current supply of bitcoins — has pressured prices in recent weeks.

More recently, the US Senate last week passed a version of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that did not have any of the proposed amendments on crypto tax reporting that had been a major point of contention in the industry.

That was seen as a blow to the sector, as it could place more tax regulations on the industry, though some industry advocates said it’s a sign the government is taking the explosive growth in the sector seriously.