With a total market capitalization of nearly $1.9 trillion the crypto market reached its highest level in nearly two years. Bitcoin broke through the $50,000 mark last night, rising more than 4 percent in the past 24 hours and as much as 17 percent in the past seven days.

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, nevertheless managed to gain ground. In the past 24 hours, the price has risen about 6 percent to currently $2650. Challenger Solana (SOL) gained even more than 8 percent and is currently trading at $114 (8:15 CEST, 13/02).

The last time the crypto market was at this level was in April 2022, but then the market was heading for a bear market, as the market was coming off a high of $3 trillion in November 2021. This time, however, the market is coming off a two-year crypto winter.

The macroeconomic environment has also changed, as for the first time, the crypto bull market could coincide with the beginning of a Fed rate reduction cycle. The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to fight excessive inflation and is likely to cut interest rates soon after two years of aggressive rate hikes.

The co-founder of Syncracy Capital, Daniel Cheung, sees good opportunities for the biggest bull run in terms of market capitalization and assumes it could last longer than most crypto enthusiasts expect. According to him, this is supported not least by the continued buying pressure from Bitcoin ETFs.

In addition, there are plenty of useful stories and exciting sectors that could become important for crypto this year. These include the AI hype, the DePin sector, asset tokenization and also restaking.

While institutional investors are playing an increasingly important role in the crypto market, retail investors are still surprisingly cautious at the moment. There is still little evidence of a Bitcoin hype in Google Trends. This also indicates upside potential.