Thursday morning, the leading cryptocurrency began with a flat trend, but later moved to a steady increase. By the time of writing, the value of BTC is near the $47,468 mark.

According to CoinMarketCap, over the past 24 hours the maximum price of Bitcoin reached $47,647, and the minimum was $44,483.

The key support factor for the cryptocurrency market on Thursday was the rise of the U.S. stock markets the day before. Thus, at the end of Wednesday's trading session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.45%, Standard & Poor's 500 gained 0.57%, and NASDAQ Composite strengthened by 0.75%.

By the way, experts note an increase in the level of correlation between cryptocurrency and stock markets in recent months.

At the same time, in early 2023, analysts from the American investment company Bernstein reported that in January the correlation between digital gold and the NASDAQ Composite index collapsed from 0.94 to 0.58.

According to experts from Bernstein, the cryptocurrency market has recently been balancing between bullish and bearish trends, waiting for further catalysts. At the same time, its sensitivity to important news and events in the financial world has noticeably decreased.

In early 2022, analysts frequently highlighted the strong correlation between the US stock market and the virtual asset market. This connection was particularly evident amid heightened expectations surrounding both the geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the future actions of the US Federal Reserve. For instance, in the middle of the previous year, experts at the investment firm Arcane Research observed that the correlation between Virtual Token Securities (VTS) and technology stocks had reached its highest point since July 2020.

Simultaneously, economists at the TradingView analytical platform reported that the correlation between the cryptocurrency market and the US stock market during the fourth quarter of 2022 stood at 70%.

Altcoin Market

Ethereum, a major rival to Bitcoin, also began Thursday with lateral movement. As of the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $2,653.

When discussing cryptocurrencies from the top 10 by market capitalization within the past 24 hours, all coins, except for certain stablecoins, demonstrated positive performance. Notably, Cardano outperformed the rest with a substantial gain of +12.99%.

By the end of the previous week, among the top ten cryptocurrencies in terms of strength, Ethereum led the way with an impressive growth rate of +16.63%, while BNB experienced a decline of -3.42%.

According to data from CoinGecko, the premier aggregator of information on virtual assets worldwide, over the last 24 hours, Ethereum Classic surged by an impressive +33.06%, claiming the top position in the list of gainers, while Bonk experienced a slight decline of -2.08%, leading the list of decliners among the top 100 most capitalized digital assets.

Looking back to the conclusion of the previous week, within the top 100 cryptocurrencies by strength, Klaytn fared the least favorably with a significant drop of -21.98%, while Ethereum Classic displayed remarkable resilience, achieving a remarkable increase of +39.56%.

As per CoinGecko's latest data, as of Thursday morning, the cumulative market capitalization of cryptocurrencies exceeded the critical milestone of $1 trillion, standing at a substantial $1.796 trillion. Over the past 24 hours, this figure has seen a robust uptick of 2.35%.