Crypto Markets Dip Under $100 Billion as Bitcoin, Ethereum Prices Lead Downturn
Both the bitcoin and ethereum prices declined on Wednesday, causing the global crypto markets to slouch back into the red.
This development was disappointing for investors hoping that the early-week gains were indicative of a renewed upward trend in the market. Nevertheless, investors have a reason to be hopeful. As CCN.com reported, South Korea plans to release a set of bills officially legalizing and regulating cryptocurrencies; this development could give cryptocurrencies across the board a boost.
Crypto Market Cap Dips Under $100 Billion
The crypto markets have spent the last week struggling to stay above the $100 billion threshold, and that fight continued on Wednesday. Total cryptocurrency market cap began the day at over $103 billion. However, they steadily declined throughout the day until they once again fell below $100 billion. At present, the total crypto market valuation was about $99 billion.
Bitcoin Price
Wednesday’s downturn only did minor damage to the bitcoin price, which declined 2.25% to $2,554. This remains about $450 lower than bitcoin’s mid-June high, but it nevertheless represents a seven-day increase of $20. Bitcoin’s market cap now sits at just under $42 billion.
Ethereum Price Falls 8.5%
Although bitcoin did not quite escape the downturn unscathed, it still fared better than Ethereum. The ethereum price fell 8.5% to $262, dropping its market cap to just $24.4 billion. Significantly, ethereum trading volume also dropped below bitcoin trading volume. Ethereum volume was $744.9 million, while bitcoin’s was $921.4 million.
Altcoins
Most of the top 100 altcoins followed bitcoin and ethereum’s retreat. The Ripple price declined by 2% to $0.255, while Ethereum Classic dropped 5% to $17.42. The downturn clobbered NEM, BitShares, and EOS. NEM dropped 8.5% to $0.173, but investors should take solace in the fact that NEM has still made positive movement since last week. The BitShares price fell nearly 15% to $0.222, causing its market cap to drop well below $600 million.
The EOS token was one of the coins hardest hit by today’s trading. On Wednesday, the EOS price fell 16% to $2.86. This was the second consecutive day in the red for EOS, who rocketed into the market cap top 10 after a record-setting ICO. Considering EOS was trading at about $1 when it hit the exchanges on July 1, it is likely investors are just cashing out some of the easy gains they made when EOS briefly climbed to $5.40 on July 3. EOS now places 12th on the market cap charts.
However, a few altcoins swam against the tide. Litecoin rose to an all-time high of nearly $56 before settling down to $52. This represents a 3.6% 24-hour increase for the litecoin price. Anonymity-centric Dash and Monero also pushed forward into positive territory, rising 4.7% and 3.5% respectively.
Flippening Slips Further Out of Sight
Today’s events pushed the Flippening even further out of sight as ethereum shed market cap weight at a greater rate than bitcoin. Bitcoin market cap dominance rose to 42.2%, while ethereum’s dropped to 24.8%. Ripple’s market share held mostly steady at 9.9%, while litecoin climbed to 2.7%.
Ethereum’s market cap is now only 58% as large as bitcoin’s. Ethereum is still 250% the size of 3rd-ranked Ripple, but it is losing steam in its quest to supplant bitcoin as the dominant cryptocurrency, at least in the short-term.
