Crypto is going crazy in 2018 as market capitalisation records lie in pieces. From attaining an all-time high of $700bn in the middle of the week, by mid-day Sunday, January 7th, the combined market cap of all listed cryptocurrencies stood at well over $800bn, creeping past $825bn and ever upwards.

Only a month ago, the combined market cap was congratulating itself on reaching $500bn, which represented a massive growth from its original starting point in 2017 at only $18bn. Some particular coins are pushing this upward spike, particularly Ripple and Ethereum.

Ripple began to skyrocket in mid-December and has already succeeded in knocking Ethereum off its second place in the market rankings. The company’s chairman, Chris Larsen, suddenly finds himself amongst the top five richest people on the planet, ousting Mark Zuckerberg and with the potential to overtake even Bill Gates.

Ethereum has broken the $1,000 barrier for the first time owing to an increased market demand, while Bitcoin remains relatively stable at $16,500 to $17,000, although its market share has dropped to only 34% of the total as other currencies come in.

New coins are being issued every day, economically challenged countries are thinking of issuing their own currencies, and Zuckerberg and other major league players seem to be buying into the concept, so a trillion dollar crypto industry may not be unrealistic.