Bitcoin (BTC) surged to over $120,000, and Ether (ETH) reached a high of $3,640 following the 8% daily increase. Ripple’s XRP soared almost 20% to touch a high of 2025 at $3.64. CoinMarketCap lists the market cap as $3.88 trillion, whereas TradingView cites the capitalization at $3.85 trillion. CoinGecko has already listed the total above $4 trillion.

JUST IN: The total crypto market cap has hit a new ATH of $4T. pic.twitter.com/gE8hRFegwz

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) July 18, 2025

Bitcoin’s performance shows an increase in institutional demand, whereas the 40% gain of Ethereum in two weeks suggests that smart contracts are the most in-demand. The surge in XRP’s price also reflects increased demand for remittance-friendly tokens. Cardano (ADA) took part in the rally and gained 14.6%. 

The renewed push in the market began in November 2024, when Donald Trump won the elections. Bitcoin gained 36% that month, its fourth-best performance since 2021. 

The gains come after three significant crypto bills passed in the U.S House of Representatives. Among the most influential developments was the enactment of the GENIUS Act. The bill establishes a structure to regulate stablecoins and provide consumer protection. The House approved it and is currently awaiting the signature of the President.

Another bill targets regulatory clarity, which seeks to separate the roles of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It seeks to distinguish between commodities and securities in the digital asset world. The bill is now moving to the Senate.

A third bill was also enacted by a narrow margin, given that it would not allow the issuance of any central bank digital currency in the future. The proposal bans a U.S. government-backed digital dollar, which is also being considered in the Senate.

The three bills are part of what the Trump administration has called “crypto week,” which aims to make the United States a global leader in blockchain finance. The administration says that it desires to create the “crypto capital of the world,” using the power of law to create transparency and opportunity to push innovation.

While crypto markets rally on policy progress, President Trump has had direct exposure to the industry, which has raised concerns. The financial disclosures made in July 2025 revealed that he obtained $58 million in 2024 related to crypto activities, mainly through the sale of WLFI tokens associated with World Liberty Financial.

Those earnings ranked behind only his hospitality earnings and are projected to increase. Projections in 2025 predict a further $390 million through token sales and through his meme coin, launched earlier this year.

The disclosures also show Trump has invested in digital ETFs, tokenized real estate, and mining Bitcoins, raising concerns about transparency and impact. His critics have said such investments are a conflict of interest because his administration promotes pro-industry reforms.

The current crypto movement resembles the 2021 bull run market cap, which reached over $3 trillion in a rally marked by DeFi, NFTs, and pandemic liquidity. That upward momentum was interrupted by the crash of large exchanges such as FTX and Terra, and the price of Bitcoin bottomed at $15,625. The crypto market very close to a $4 trillion market cap, making the market cap almost as large as that of the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, Nvidia.

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