Bitcoin Cash Price Posts Strong Return as Market Trades Sideways
The cryptocurrency markets were mixed on Thursday, with the index more or less trading sideways after recovering from an early morning dip. Against this backdrop, though, the Bitcoin Cash price achieved a strong return, enabling it to lead the large-cap index by a comfortable margin.
The cryptocurrency market cap had entered the day at $449.6 billion — the product of yet another midweek slump — and declined further heading into Wednesday evening. After bottoming out below $440 billion, the index experienced a moderate recovery on Thursday morning. At present, the market is valued at just below $453 billion, representing a 24-hour increase of increase of about three-quarters-of-one percent.
Bitcoin Price Holds Near $10,700
The Bitcoin price managed to achieve a one percent increase for the day, placing it at a present value of $10,695 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. The flagship cryptocurrency now has a $181.4 billion market cap, which translates into a 40 percent share of the total cryptocurrency market cap.
Notably, the market does not appear to have moved on the news that digital payment processor Square wants to build out its cryptocurrency-related product line. Square CEO Jack Dorsey — who also leads social media giant Twitter — said that the company believes Bitcoin is a “transformational technology,” and analysts predict that the company could launch a Coinbase-style brokerage platform and cryptocurrency exchange.
Ethereum Price Treads Water Despite ICO Probe
The Ethereum price experienced a moderate hiccup last night, briefly sinking below $850 before recovering to a present value of $869. This leaves the second-largest cryptocurrency’s market cap at $85.5 billion, a single-day increase of about one-half-of-one percent.
Ethereum’s temporary stumble was likely connected to the news that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had issued subpoenas to “scores” of initial coin offering (ICO) operators in what represents the agency’s widest ever probe into the nascent fundraising model.
Because the majority of ICO tokens are built as ERC20 tokens that run on top of the Ethereum blockchain, ICO regulations can often have an outsized effect on Ethereum, even though they also generally impact the market as a whole.
At present, the probe does not appear to be having a sustained effect on the Ethereum price, but this could change if the SEC probe results in fraud suits being brought against ICO operators.
Bitcoin Cash Price Leads the Large-Cap Index
The altcoin markets were choppy, with several large-cap coins achieving solid advances but the majority sinking into the red.
Ripple was the most stable large-cap cryptocurrency, with its price fluctuating less than one-fifth-of-one percent for the day and holding at a present value of $0.90.
The Bitcoin Cash price, meanwhile, led the index with a five percent advance to $1,285. Bitcoin Cash currently has a $21.8 billion market cap, leaving it approximately $13 billion behind Ripple on the charts.
Litecoin, ranked fifth, declined by about one percent to $208, while NEO’s three percent pullback dropped its price to just above $130.
The EOS price declined by one percent, but eighth-ranked Cardano saw its value sink by a top 10-worst six percent to a present value of $0.29.
The Stellar price declined by three percent, and IOTA rounded out the top 10 with a four percent increase to $1.98.
