Bitcoin saw its price rise above $3,700 this weekend, while most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies posted
Bitcoin prices have dropped from nearly $20,000 in late 2017 to just over $3,000 earlier this year. Following this drop, prices and volume had stagnated, and some analysts predicted further sideways movement. However, the cryptocurrency posted a 10% gain on February 8 to surpass the $3,700 mark and reach a 20-day high of $3,702. Prices have steadied a little, trading at $3,620 for most of Sunday.
While Bitcoin’s gains were significant, and welcomed by the market, they were dwarfed by other major cryptocurrencies. Litecoin, which is often described as being the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, rose by more than 40%. It rose from $33 to reach a 3-month high of $47 and was still trading at more than $44 on Sunday.
EOS, Ethereum, Cardano, Bitcoin Cash, and NEO were among the other coins that posted gains of more than 10%.
The whole cryptocurrency market saw a capitalization of $122 billion. While this is the highest figure since January this year, it is still only a fraction of the $820 billion that was set in January 2018.
It has recently been reported that Bitcoin’s hash rate, which is the amount of power required to generate new units of cryptocurrency, rose to its highest level since November 2018. As it becomes more expensive to produce the cryptocurrency, it can lead to a rise in prices, which may have been the catalyst for this recent price rise.
Whatever the reason for the gains, however, investors will appreciate the increase in volatility. Cryptocurrency is described as being one of the most volatile investment markets with
Bitcoin is now trading at $3,598.57 at 08:45 GMT while Litecoin is trading at $43.82.
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