Cryptocurrency Markets: Weekly Trading Overview (13-20 October)
Bitcoin easily revisited the levels above $5,500. But this week saw good days for altcoins as well, lifting Litecoin and Ethereum temporarily.
Bitcoin (BTC) scaled back slightly to a dominance of 55.8% as altcoins took a breather. On Friday, the leading cryptocurrency had a series of climbs and falls, hovering around $5,657. The very active trading week saw the leading coin drop slightly and stop the metheoric rise, as the hard fork in November seemed to lose support and came under question. Trading volumes remained flat at $1.5 billion after the buying spree at the beginning of the week subsided.
Ethereum (ETH) peaked near $350 and fell back toward $300, despite the news of the successful Byzantium hard fork. The coin slid more than 7% for the past week to $305.11. But volumes shrank to $313 million in 24 hours, although in the past trading reached nearly $1 billion per day.
Ripple (XRP) had a dynamic week of increased community enthusiasm, but then fell back on selling. XRP lost more than 13% for the last 7 days, to $0.21, after touching a peak at $0.27.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH, BCC) managed to stop the slide and recover, standing above $325 ahead of the weekend. The coin added 3.87% for the last seven days despite the pessimistic tone. BCH is still unstable, but may stand to benefit in the case a hard fork does not occur for Bitcoin. The biggest anomaly for BCH happened mid-week, when the price surged and fell on unexplained increased volume, mostly on Korean exchanges.
Litecoin (LTC) had a brief run above $60 in the middle of the week, but fell back to $58.78, adding less than 2% for the period. Trading volumes thinned out to $122 million.
DASH (DASH) slid more than 4.10% for the week, in its habitual pattern of peaks and troughs. The project remains dedicated to become the digital cash of tomorrow, and the market price is simply a side effect. DASH fell to $290.32, continuing to drop ahead of the weekend.
NEM (XEM) added more than 7% in the past few days, reaching $0.21, but gave signs of sliding back ahead of the weekend. The coin pushed off the recent low, but trading volumes remain slim.
NEO (NEO) remained stable around $28.78, adding 2.20% net in the past 7 days, but starting to slide on Friday.
Monero (XMR) deflated further, sliding to $89.87, despite the news of listing on a Japanese exchange.
IOTA (MIOTA) survived the week without much change, going down a percent to $0.41, proving that last week's altcoin correction had some logic to bring down some of the more inflated prices to a more linear growth pattern.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) slid to $11.29, losing around 5.46% on the week, still down at position 12 on CoinMarketCap. In the past week, the Exodus wallet added support for the coin, but this did little to uplift the price.
The Surprise Movers
QTUM (QTUM) jumped on Friday, underlining the influence of Korean markets. The coin grew by more than 15% for the week to $12.42 on a suddenly increased buying volume.
Stellar Lumens (XLM) continued to make dramatic gains, adding more than 70% in the past 7 days after a loss and another peak. XLM stood at $0.031, propped by trading on Bittrex and Poloniex.
This week, altcoins did not get punished so much, having reached more normalized levels. The approach of the Bitcoin Gold hard fork and the November SegWit2X split may have been consumed by the markets, and it is unknown if Bitcoin continues the rally or displays signs of buyer fatigue.
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