Cryptocurrency Market Records Large Gains, Litecoin Surges by 30%
Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market has recorded large gains, as every major cryptocurrency including bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin recovered in value.
Bitcoin and Ethereum
Bitcoin demonstrated an 11 percent increase in price, moving closer to the $10,000 mark, which analysts often describe as the psychological threshold for the cryptocurrency. As CCN.com noted in the past, because the market tends to follow the trend of bitcoin in terms of massive volatility, over the past 24 hours, most cryptocurrencies have followed bitcoin’s upward momentum.
Since yesterday, the price of bitcoin rose from $8,840 to $9,900, by more than $1,000 overnight. The daily trading volume of bitcoin across large cryptocurrency exchanges remain solid, and short-term momentum indicators such as moving average convergence divergence (MACD) demonstrates strong short-term momentum for bitcoin.
Ever since a massive buy volume was recorded at the $8,800 range, the bitcoin price has shown strong momentum with large buy volumes. The keyword “buy bitcoin” has also started to increase on platforms and search engines like Google. Since February 14, the keyword “buy bitcoin” increased from 26 points to 44 points, by nearly two-fold.
Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, has more or less been following the short-term price trend of bitcoin. As the price of bitcoin broke the $9,800 mark, Ether surpassed $950, indicating strong momentum. The $1,000 mark is also a psychological threshold for Ether, and given that Ethereum’s all-time high is $1,400, if Ether can surpass $1,000 over the next few days, it will gain momentum to rally towards its all-time high in the mid-term.
Based on the daily trading volumes of both bitcoin and Ethereum, it is entirely possible that bitcoin could reach $10,000 within the next 24 hours. A major correction at this stage is also unlikely, unless a massive sell-off occurs on February 16, during Chinese new year. Although historically, the market has seen some minor corrections during the Chinese new year, because it had experienced a major correction earlier in January, it is unlikely that the Chinese new year will largely affect the market.
Litecoin Surges 30%
Litecoin has been the fourth best performing cryptocurrency in the market, behind small-scale tokens like WAX and Nebilo. Litecoin recorded a 30 percent increase in value, overtaking Cardano to become the fifth largest cryptocurrency in the market for the first time since early January.
Several reports suggested that Litecoin’s value has surged due to an upcoming hard fork. Litecoin Cash, which has been criticizd by the community, will be rewarded to every Litecoin holder prior to block 1371111.
While the hard fork may encourage users to purchase Litecoin to obtain free Litecoin Cash, many other major factors have contributed to the recent surge of Litecoin. For instance, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee noted that the introduction of Coinbase Commerce will allow merchants to adopt Litecoin alongside other major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
1 down, 3 to go!
✅ Merchant processor @CommerceCB
🔲 Popular online wallet
🔲 Goods trading platform
🔲 One huge unexpected surprise#PayWithLitecoin https://t.co/bYUPup67G0— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) February 14, 2018
The upcoming hard fork, as well as the community’s anticipation of Litecoin’s short and mid-term growth through Coinbase Commerce (merchant adoption), fueled Litecoin’s recent rally.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
