Digital currency markets have been rising again as the entire market capitalization of all 5,000+ coins has jumped above the $200 billion mark. The increase in crypto trade volume and coin values has followed alongside the recovery traditional equity markets saw on Monday. On Tuesday, most of the digital assets in the top ten are up between 4-14% and crypto trade volumes have doubled in the last 24 hours.
Also read: Hyperbitcoinization: Visions of Bitcoin Fueling the Post Covid-19 Shadow Economy
Top Ten Crypto Assets Gain 4-14% in the Last 24 Hours
During the last few weeks, digital currency proponents and crypto traders have been wondering what will happen to bitcoin and the slew of other coins in the crypto industry. For instance, the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization lost a whopping $44 billion on March 12, 2020, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday.’ BTC prices dropped to a low of $3,870 on March 12. The following day, BTC regained some of the losses when it was hovering between $5,300-5,600 per coin on March 13.
Since then, BTC has gained 30% since the low and on April 7, prices are currently meandering between $7,300-$7,425 during Tuesday morning’s trading sessions. BTC has gained about 4% in the last 24 hours and the coin is up 15% for the week. Ethereum is priced around $174 per ETH and has gained 13.3% today. Behind ETH is XRP, which is swapping for $0.20 per coin as XRP markets are up by 6.8%.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH/USD) Market Action
Bitcoin cash (BCH) is trading for $259 per coin today and has gained 7.2% in the last 24 hours. BCH is up 18% for the week and has also gained 8.5% during the last 90 days. The top trading pair with BCH on Tuesday is tether (USDT), which is capturing around 63% of all BCH trades. This is followed by BTC (20.71%), USD (9.42%), KRW (2.19%), ETH (1.65%), EUR (0.91%), and JPY (0.82%).
Bitcoin cash has a liquid market cap that’s hovering around $4.8 billion on Tuesday, and BCH is the fifth most trade crypto below EOS and above LTC. BCH reported trade volume is around $4.8 billion, but messari.io’s “real volume” statistics note it’s around $35 million. In 22 hours, BCH will be the first major SHA256 branch to experience a halving. After April 8, BCH miners will go from receiving 12.5 coins per block to 6.25 BCH, plus transaction fees.
Digital Currency Market Prices ‘Buck the Trend’
Market analyst from Etoro, Simon Peters, noted in a recent investors’ report that last week’s financial data was far more worrisome than this week’s changes. “Economic data released last week was worrying, to say the least,” Peters wrote. “Midweek figures revealing a drop in exports from big Asian economies, such as Japan and South Korea, hit equity markets globally, resulting in the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 both dropping considerably.” Peters remarked that cryptocurrency markets, however, have managed to “buck the trend.”
“From a crypto asset point of view, however, both bitcoin and altcoins have performed well during this difficult period,” the Etoro analyst added. “Bitcoin has been in a consolidation phase, remaining steady in between $6,000 and $7,000. There has been the odd spike, both to the upside and the downside, but overall, I am happy with the solidity of the price at the moment. With the Fed carrying out its policy of unlimited quantitative easing, buying assets left right and center, I think bitcoin is going to be pushing towards $7,500 in the short term.
Crypto Investors ‘Shrug Off Pessimism’
While BTC prices remain above the $7K region and a slew of other digital assets follow suit, many market strategists believe crypto investors are less worried. In just a week’s time, sentiment among crypto traders and investors has changed from bearish to bullish. “[Bitcoin and cryptocurrency] purchases follow the signs of improving sentiment in the stock markets,” noted Alex Kuptsikevich, Fxpro’s senior market analyst. “As soon as risk assets start to attract demand actively, institutional investors may also increase their positions in the cryptocurrency,” Kuptsikevich added on Monday.
Additionally, Naeem Aslam the chief market strategist from Avatrade remarked that crypto investors are far more optimistic now. “Investors are shrugging off the pessimism,” Aslam wrote. However, Aslam said that covid-19 might not be over so quickly and the virus could make it so “we could be in for a longer period of recession.”
The Verdict: Post Covid-19 Uncertainty Remains
Overall digital assets have outshined U.S. stock markets and precious metals as well. The price of BTC has surpassed the S&P 500’s gains and the rest of the top U.S. indexes. Since equity markets started showing signs of recovery, gold has moved very little and has only gained 2% since the start of the year. Despite social media and forums showing a lot more optimism among crypto investors, the multifactorial Crypto Fear & Greed Index (CFGI) shows “extreme fear” is still in the air.
Traders understand that digital currencies are doing very well but economic uncertainty, in general, is clouding most people’s predictions. As far as BTC prices are concerned and a few other digital asset values, key resistance has started to form. If crypto assets can’t break these regions, then another pullback could be in the cards. Despite the looming doubt, researchers believe that the response to covid-19 from governments and central banks will be a positive influence on crypto assets.
“We believe that the downstream impact of the government’s fiscal and monetary response to the crisis will be strongly positive for crypto,” Bitwise’s Global Head of Research Matt Hougan remarked in the firm’s April 2020 Investor Letter.
Where do you see the crypto markets heading from here? Let us know in the comments below.
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