Altcoins and DeFi tokens rise as Ethereum price hit $1,650

Sentiment across the cryptocurrency sector continues to improve as Ethereum’s price ventured into uncharted territory. On February 3, it hit a new all-time high of $1,653.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin bulls appear to have their eyes set on the target of $40,000. According to Marcel Pechman, Cointelegraph analyst, this Friday’s expiration of $1 billion in BTC options favours investors bullish.

TradingView data shows a 4.46% price increase for the market-leading cryptocurrency, currently trading at $36,994. Meanwhile, Ethereum is up 8.38% and is trading at $1,633.

The business intelligence company MicroStrategy is scheduled to hold a conference with 1,400 public companies on February 4. Its CEO, Michael Saylor, will talk about how companies can integrate Bitcoin into their corporate strategy.

On-chain analyst Willy Woo addressed the concern that recent large institutional purchases and whale wallets lead to the centralization of Bitcoin. He showed that small and medium holders control approximately 40% of the available supply and distribution continues to improve.

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Traditional markets got a boost from tech stocks

There has also been a continuation of the bullish momentum in traditional markets today. The combination of positive corporate earnings and gains related to the Biden administration’s economic stimulus has helped improve overall market sentiment.

US officials could meet as early as February 4 to address the growing influence in financial markets of investment groups on social media. The discussion is expected to focus on the recent evolution of r/Wallstreetbets. They are also likely to talk about the use of platforms like Robinhood and Reddit to manipulate the markets.

The S&P 500 and the Dow managed to recover from the downward pressure and closed the day with an increase of 0.10% and 0.11%. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ suffered a sell-off wave at the last minute that took it to a slightly negative close of 0.02%. Large technology stocks, such as GOOGL, which rose 7.28%, contributed to the rise in markets at the close of the day.

DeFi tokens continue to outdo other crypto assets

Events involving brokerage firms restricting access to certain assets have highlighted the positive aspects of decentralized finance. DeFi tokens have profited from this attention, along with Ether’s strong breakout.

The extra attention helped propel AAVE and SushiSwap (SUSHI) to new highs of $345 and $14.84, respectively. Meanwhile, UMA saw their price rise 59% to an annual high of $21.56.

The entire cryptocurrency market’s capitalization currently stands at $1.11 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 61.6%.