This week, the total cryptocurrency market exploded above $3.4 trillion for the first time in history, adding close to $400 billion in the process. This comes on the back of considerable gains across the board, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, Cardano, and more.

Let’s start with Bitcoin – the primary cryptocurrency that has been teasing traders by breaking out to $100K for more than a day now, inching closer and closer each time. At the time of this writing, it’s trading at slightly below $99,000, less than two percent away from $100,000.

That said, Bitcoin is not the biggest start this week. This title belongs to none other than Ripple’s XRP. The cryptocurrency exploded by over 66% in a whopping rally propelled by what seems to be the biggest news of the week. Of course, I’m talking about the latest thread by the Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – Gary Gensler. Recall that when he was campaigning at the Bitcoin 2024 conference earlier this year, President-elect Donald Trump promised to fire him on his first day in office. Well, he won’t have to.

Gensler said that he would step down from his position on the same day Trump was inaugurated – January 20th, 2025. This sent the market slightly higher, but XRP benefitted the most. It’s up more than 30% in the past 24 hours following the news.

Another cryptocurrency that performed really well is Cardano’s ADA – it’s up by almost 45% in the past week and it’s currently eyeing $1.