Although 2019 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for cryptocurrencies, the path to recovery is riddled with obstacles, chief among them being damaged investor sentiment and a myriad of regulatory issues.
Crypto markets witnessed a sizable pullback on Sunday, as Bitcoin lurched back below $3,500 and major altcoins registered moderate declines.
Bitcoin
All major cryptocurrencies have registered declines in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market cap and trading volume, swung back below $3,500 through the early part of Sunday, and has now reached a session low of $3,427, according to Bitstamp.
At the time of writing, a clear downtrend seems to be forming for Bitcoin, and we could see the king’s price go down more during the next couple of hours.
Altcoins
Ethereum declined about 2% to $115. Bitcoin Cash is nursing a loss of close to 8%, trading at $111. The value of EOS fell 3% to lower than $2.40.
XRP fell about 2% to $0.3111, where it was approaching several bearish technical confluences. This comes despite Ripple announcing it had sold $535 million worth of XRP last year.
After peaking north of $0.03, Tron is back trading around $0.029. It is worth noting however that TRX has gained a whopping 21% over the past seven days.
Outside the top ten, Binance Coin rose 2% to above $7, compounding its weekly gain to 9%. Monero was trading slightly higher at $46, and has now gained close to 5% over the past seven days.
The combined value of cryptocurrencies dropped nearly $4 billion on Sunday to reach a low of $118 billion. At last look, the market was valued near $114 billion.
If you’re looking for good news, some of the largest players within the cryptocurrency space are betting big on the rise of institutional traders. Coinbase, one of America’s largest crypto exchanges, recently announced further institutional support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. This includes cross-border wire transfers for high-volume users in Asia, the UK, and Europe.
Even when prices are down, these cryptocurrency-based businesses seem to be growing in terms of both user adoption and total transactions.
Let’s hope the market recovers soon!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.