Cryptocurrency prices today rally for second day, Bitcoin up 5%; ether, ethereum classic lead gains

livemint.com:

Cryptocurrencies prices today rallied for a second day, with Bitcoin trading above the $23,000 mark and ether-related tokens leading the gains, as optimism grows about the long-anticipated software upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain network.

The world's largest and most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin rose more than 5% to $23,868. The global cryptocurrency market cap today was above the $1 trillion mark, as it surged more than 4% in the last 24 hours to $1.14 trillion, as per CoinGecko.

On the other hand, Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, gained nearly 7% to $1,714. Meanwhile, dogecoin price today was trading over 5% higher at $0.06 whereas Shiba Inu also surged over 5% to $0.000015.

Ethereum’s move from the current system of using miners to a more energy-efficient system using staked coins is nearing. The switch to this so-called proof-of-stake system is expected to take place in September.

This week, Ethereum developers have signaled continued progress in testing the new system, and they are holding a series of events for prospective stakers and other community members in the coming weeks. Ethereum Classic rallied over 21%.

Other crypto prices' today performance also improved as XRP, Solana, BNB, Litecoin, Stellar, Chainlink, Apecoin, Avalanche, Polkadot, Tether, Polygon, Tron, Uniswap prices were trading with gains over the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile the broader crypto market continued to benefit from traders dialing back wagers on Federal Reserve hikes after an ugly economic reading fueled concern about a US recession.

US banking regulators have ordered crypto firm Voyager Digital to cease and desist from making "false and misleading" claims that its customers'