Cryptocurrency Market Cap Retreats Below $400 Billion
It’s another day in the red for the cryptocurrency markets, as 97 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies have posted 24-hour declines against the US dollar. The Bitcoin price headlined the retreat by declining to an 80-day low, and other top coins fared equally as poorly.
Altogether, the cryptocurrency market cap declined by $52 billion to $363 billion, representing a single-day pullback of nearly 13 percent.
Bitcoin Price Falls to 80-Day Low
The downturn reduced the Bitcoin price by another 12 percent, bringing the most prominent cryptocurrency to an 80-day low. At present, the Bitcoin price is valued at just $7,660, which translates into a $130 billion market cap.
Nevertheless, as CCN.com reported this morning, the impending launch of stock brokerage app Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading platform could breathe new life into the markets, or — at the very least — speed its recovery. Fintech platforms such as Robinhood Crypto and Square’s Cash App will likely prove crucial in the future, as an increasing number of banks and other financial institutions are banning their customers from using their credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies.
Ethereum Price Sinks Below $800
Some investors believed that the market downturn would present Ethereum with the opportunity to finally achieve the “flippening” by surpassing Bitcoin’s market cap and becoming the largest cryptocurrency. However, this has not proved to be the case, as the Ethereum price has largely tracked with Bitcoin’s decline.
On Monday, the Ethereum price sunk below the $800 mark and was trading at $772 on Bitfinex at the time of writing. This represents a single-day decline of 13 percent and leaves Ethereum with a $75.8 billion market cap.
Altcoin Markets Plunge
On the whole, altcoins declined to a greater degree than Bitcoin, demonstrating that diversifying into altcoins will not necessarily provide investors with a hedge against major market declines.
Both the Ripple price and Bitcoin Cash price declined by 13 percent, reducing the third- and fourth-largest cryptocurrencies to present values of $0.75 and $1,017, respectively.
Fifth-ranked Cardano posted the worst performance of any top 10-cryptocurrenecy, plunging 18 percent to $0.34. EOS and Litecoin, meanwhile, returned single-day declines of 12 percent.
Stellar, ranked eighth, declined nine percent for the day, which — demonstrating the severity of the downturn — was the best performance of any cryptocurrency ranked in the top 50, excluding the USD-pegged Tether.
NEO and NEM rounded out the top 10 with 24-hour declines of 14 percent and 17 percent, respectively, reducing their prices to $95 and $0.49.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
