Well, somebody bought the dip. Just as critics were rushing to proclaim that the bitcoin bubble had burst, the markets staged a $159 billion recovery. The rally was headlined by the bitcoin price, which rebounded from its sub-$10,000 fling and is currently flirting with $12,000. Several other top-tier coins, meanwhile, returned single day increases in excess of 40 percent. Source: CoinMarketCapAltogether, the cryptocurrency market cap clawed its way back to $574 billion, representing a 38 percent recovery from Wednesday’s intraday low of $415 billion. Bitcoin Price Eyes $12,000Wednesday served as a trial-by-fire for recent bitcoin investors, some of whom had purchased the flagship cryptocurrency for $19,000 at the height of the rally in mid-December. Bitcoin Price ChartThe correction forced the bitcoin price below $10,000 for the first time since early December, but Thursday’s rally enabled bitcoin to regain a bit of the ground it had lost during the downturn. The bitcoin price rose 14 percent for the day, rising as high as $11,901 on Bitfinex before ebbing back to a present value of $11,451. Bitcoin now has a market cap of $193.9 billion. Ethereum Price Recovers Past $1,000The Ethereum price made a similar recovery, climbing 19 percent to $1,037 after dipping as low as $781 on Wednesday afternoon. Ethereum now has a $101.1 billion market cap. Ethereum Price Chart Ripple Price Leads the Markets With 57% SurgeThursday’s recovery lifted virtually all cryptocurrencies against the US dollar, but no top-tier coin returned a better performance than Ripple. The ripple price surged by 57 percent to $1.61, restoring its market cap to $61.6 billion. Ripple Price ChartSeveral factors contributed to Ripple’s outsized performance, including reduced fears that South Korea — by far XRP’s largest market — will attempt to implement a blanket ban on cryptocurrency trading. Additionally, a major South Korean bank announced that it will conduct a second blockchain trial using Ripple’s enterprise blockchain. This trial will not feature XRP integration, but these types of announcements still tend to provide ripple with a price bump. Stellar Leads Rest of Altcoin PackAltcoin prices rose across the board on Thursday, and the recovery lifted the total altcoin market cap to $386 billion. The bitcoin cash price posted a strong 24 percent gain, while Cardano’s 14 percent increase lagged the returns of other top 10-cryptocurrencies. Litecoin and EOS each achieved 27 percent recoveries, while NEO’s 34 percent increase brought its market cap within $350 million of the $10 billion checkpoint. Next to Ripple, the two strongest performances came from NEM and stellar, which rose 47 percent and 57 percent respectively to round out the top 10. Featured image from Shutterstock