Bitcoin Reaches New Record High

This weekly update tracks some of the largest cryptocurrencies by market share: bitcoin and ether. While both are considered to be high-risk when it comes to investing, the two have foundational differences that investors should know. We’ve also included XRP, as it was one of the largest cryptocurrencies when this series began. According to Wikipedia, a cryptocurrency is “a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets.”

For a better understanding of crypto market cycles, read more here.

Bitcoin was the world’s first cryptocurrency and decentralized digital currency. The first bitcoin transaction occurred in early 2009 and has since grown worldwide to a mainstream financial asset. It is often considered volatile, as seen in our first chart, but one can argue that it is also resilient. Learn more about some bitcoin basics for new investors.

Bitcoin’s closing price reached a new record high this week, crossing $124,000 for the first time in history. BTC is now up ~29% year-to-date.

Ether

Ether is a cryptocurrency run on the Ethereum blockchain platform and was launched in July 2015. It has the second largest market share, despite being the newest of the three discussed in this article.

Ether’s closing price rose more than 10% this week, hitting its highest level in three weeks. ETH is now up ~33% year-to-date and is ~8% below its record close from August 2025.

XRP

XRP, which is owned by Ripple, was launched in 2012 and was one of the larger cryptocurrencies for some time until new coins joined the market.

An index has been created in order to chart these three cryptocurrencies together, considering their significantly different pricing histories. A logarithmic scale is used on the y-axis of this chart to better illustrate the relative percentage changes and long-term growth of these cryptocurrencies, as opposed to their absolute price fluctuations. The chart tells us which cryptocurrency’s price has changed the most since November 9, 2017. At one point or another, all three have been at the top. At the time of writing, bitcoin is in the lead.

On January 10th, 2024, the SEC approved spot bitcoin ETFs from a range of issuers such as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), Coinshares Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (BRRR). Here are some of the quick takeaways from the spot bitcoin ETF launch.