Bitcoin Price Recovers Past $2,500; Is $5,000 In Sight?
The bitcoin price recovered past $2,500 on Thursday, leading the markets to a moderate recovery after yesterday’s decline. Thirteen of the top 15 coins experienced price increases, and three of them saw gains of more than 10%.
Thursday’s upward pivot brought a moderate increase to the total cryptocurrency market cap. The total value of all cryptocurrencies had dipped as low as $84 billion on July 26, but it has since grown to a present value of $88 billion.
Bitcoin Price Crosses $2,500
Thursday’s 3% price increase carried bitcoin back across the $2,500 level. The bitcoin price is now $2,586, which translates into a market cap of $42.6 billion. The analysts at eToro say that South Korea’s friendly stance to cryptocurrency is currently helping prop up the bitcoin price.
Last week, Keiser Report Host Max Keiser responded to the BIP 91 lock-in by doubling down on his June prediction that a $5,000 bitcoin price was “in sight. Keiser’s prediction is more or less in line with the recent Goldman Sachs analysis suggesting bitcoin will approach $4,000, although his take is obviously more optimistic.
Nevertheless, the short-term future of the bitcoin price will depend upon how investors react to the upcoming Bitcoin Cash hard fork, which Roger Ver recently endorsed. Bitcoin Cash futures are currently trading at $412 on ViaBTC, according to CoinMarketCap .
Others, however, remain skeptical over Bitcoin’s potential – even in the long-term. Oaktree Capital Management founder Howard Mark issued a memo warning his clients that digital currencies are “not real”. Bank of America echoed that sentiment, telling investors they should not be optimistic about the 2017 bitcoin and ethereum price surge.
Ethereum Price Ticks Upward
The ethereum price dipped below $200 on July 26, but it inched forward 1% on July 27, bringing its present value to $205. That’s an impressive number for an asset that is “not real.” Ethereum’s market cap is now about $19.1 billion. However, ethereum’s single-day trading volume dropped to $415 million after regularly topping $1 billion throughout the past two months.
NEM Price Bounces Back
The altcoin markets saw positive movement amid a day with low trading volumes. Ripple, Litecoin, and BitConnect each saw minor gains of 1% or less.
The NEM price led top 5 coins with an 8% gain, bringing its price to $0.167 and market cap to $1.5 billion. This recovery occurred as Australia’s Blockchain Global announced it was building the first dedicated cryptocurrency exchange for the NEM Foundation. NEM’s upward march – coupled with the Dash price’s 1% decline – enabled NEM to supplant Dash as the 5th-ranked coin. NEM is currently about $700 million behind 4th-place litecoin.
The IOTA price rose 2.5% following the announcement of another major partnership, this time with the Imperial College London’s Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering (IC3RE).
Three coins in the top 15 managed to post gains of more than 15%. The Monero price – which had dipped as low as $38 on July 25 – swelled 12% to about $45. This gain bested all other top 10 coins.
Eleventh-ranked EOS also brought double-digit returns. The EOS price rose 16% to $1.87, placing its market cap within striking distance of $500 million.
Finally, NEO increased 11% to $7.70, causing it to spring into 13th on the market cap charts.
Ethereum Market Share Dips below 22%
Thursday brought little change to the cryptocurrency market cap percentage charts. Bitcoin’s share crept up to 48.2%, while ethereum’s fell below 22% to a present mark of 21.7%. Ripple lost about 0.1%, while litecoin’s hold on the market slid below 2.5% following a disappointing week.
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