BTC Dips Below $38K, ETH Beneath $2,500 Anticipating London Hard Fork (Market Watch)
Bitcoin’s gradual decrease continues as the asset lost another portion of its value and is again below $38,000. Ethereum has also dipped beneath a coveted price tag ($2,500) even though anticipation for the London Hard Fork is rising, which is scheduled to take place tomorrow – August 5th.
ETH Below $2.5K Ahead of London Hard Fork
The second-largest cryptocurrency reached a seven-week high at $2,700 over the weekend, but the bears regained control and pushed it south. It dropped below $2,500 and has remained there today as well.
Interestingly, this comes even though the London Hard Fork is looming. The network update, which aims to introduce multiple improvements primarily fighting to reduce the network fees, should occur tomorrow – August 5th. As such, many cryptocurrency exchanges have prepared for this long-anticipated event.
Apart from ETH, most other larger-cap altcoins are somewhat stagnant on a 24-hour scale. Binance, Polkadot, Uniswap, and Bitcoin Cash, have marked minor increases, while Chainlink and Cardano have risen to $23 and $1.33, respectively.
In contrast, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Litecoin are slightly in the red.
More volatility, as expected, comes from lower- and mid-cap alts. Terra leads the way with a 13% surge to $14, followed by Ravencoin (12%), Perpetual Protocol (11%), and Celo (10%).
On the other hand, Stacks has lost the most (-12%) in a day and is down to $1.28. Telcoin (-8%), Bitcoin Gold (-6%), and Nexo (-5.5%) are next.
The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has lost some steam again and is down below $1.550 trillion.
Bitcoin Struggles Beneath $38K
The primary cryptocurrency also performed well during the weekend as it reached its highest price level since May of $42,600. As the bulls were preparing for another move upwards, though, the landscape changed rapidly, and the asset started losing value.
It broke below $40,000 on Monday and kept declining to just over $38,000 yesterday. In the past 24 hours, the situation worsened even though BTC attempted to break above $38,500.
The subsequent rejection, though, drove the cryptocurrency south again. As such, it dipped to $37,650 (on Bitstamp) – the lowest level in more than a week.
As of now, it has regained some traction but still stands below $38,000. Its market capitalization is just over $710 billion, but its dominance has been decreased slightly to 46%.
