Saturday, Feb. 16: Cryptocurrencies are seeing mild price action, with virtually all of the top 20 coins by market cap seeing fluctuations of within 2 percent in both directions on the day, as data from Coin360 shows.
Market visualization by Coin360
Top cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has seen fractional 0.37 percent growth on the day and is trading at $3,631 to press time, according to CoinMarketCap data. On its 7-day chart, the coin has jaggedly traded downward from an intraweek peak of almost $6,700 on Feb. 11 to a low of $3,610 on Feb. 14 — subsequently recuperating some of its losses. On the month, the coin has seen virtually no movement, trading down by a mild 0.8 percent in value.
Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ethereum (ETH) — holding on to its newly-regained position as largest altcoin by market cap — is up around 1 percent on the day to trade at roughly $123 to press time. The altcoin has seen moderate and consistent growth over the past seven days, bringing its weekly gains to just over 4 percent.
On the month, Ethereum is similarly stable, trading at virtually the same price point (0.4 percent down) as in mid-January.
Ethereum 1-month price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
In the latest Ethereum core dev call, ETH co-founder Vitalik Buterin and others have dismissed allegations that a new smart contract creation feature set to be released in the forthcoming Constantinople hard fork will have negative security implications.
Also this week, Chicago-based crypto exchange ErisX submitted its comments to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, arguing in favor of regulated ETH futures contracts.
Ripple (XRP) — like its larger market cap counterparts — is seeing virtually no price change on the day, and is trading around $0.301 at press time. Up a fractional 0.5 percent over the past 24 hours, the asset is down a mild 2 percent on the week. Monthly losses are starker, at close to 9 percent.
Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Industry commentators have this week discussed whether United States banking giant JPMorgan Chase’s newly-announced settlement stablecoin could pose a direct threat to XRP’s future. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has refuted these concerns, arguing that the so-dubbed JMP Coin “misses the point” of cryptocurrency.
A major exception among the remaining top 20 coins is Litecoin (LTC), which has has seen close to 4 percent in growth on the day to trade at $43.83. The altcoin has thus again dislodged EOS and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, which it holds with a market cap of around $990 million.
EOS, now ranked fifth, is today seeing solid growth, up a solid 2.4 percent on the day to trade at $2.85. Privacy-focused crypto Monero (XMR), ranked 13th, is the only other major altcoin to see discernible growth — gaining about 2 percent on the day to trade at $48.16.
The heaviest top twenty loser meanwhile is Maker (MKR), ranked 17th, which is down 1.6 percent to trade at $509.65.
The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $121 billion as of press time, up a fractional 0.25 percent on the week.
7-day chart of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap
In other cryptocurrency news, major crypto brokerage Coinmama — which allows users to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum using a credit card — has revealed it suffered a major data breach affecting 450,000 of its users.
And in adoption news, Liberstad — a private, anarcho-capitalist city in Norway — has adopted a cryptocurrency native to its blockchain-powered smart city platform. The new crypto will be the city’s official medium of exchange, with national fiat currencies to be prohibited.
