The past week in the cryptocurrency space has been a roller coaster. Since our last market update, many top digital assets including bitcoin experienced a bearish downtrend. The significant dive saw bitcoin hit a low of US$750 per BTC, but the price rebounded on January 12 with many altcoins following suit.
Bitcoin Bounces Back
At the time of writing, bitcoin's fiat value is roughly holding above the $800 range after last week's great climb to $1,145. The price held steady above $900 just days before the dive, which many believe stemmed from China's central bank inspecting bitcoin exchanges. The week-long inspection by the People's Bank of China caused a lot of speculation and the price of bitcoin subsequently dropped significantly.
Currently, the inspections seem to be still happening, and changes have been made within Chinese bitcoin exchange operations. China's top three exchanges—Huobi, OKCoin, and BTCC—have since changed their margin lending policies. It has been reported that BTCC and Huobi have ceased offering the service entirely, while others have lowered borrowing limits significantly. Many bitcoin community members have welcomed the changes, saying that Chinese bitcoin trade volumes might be more accurate in the future.
Top Market Trends in the Cryptocurrency Space
In the altcoin world, many of the top cryptocurrencies have also been finding new bottoms and bouncing back. The second highest token by capitalization, Ethereum, is currently up 3.2% with a price of $9.70 per Ether. Ripple's token has remained steady this week at number three with little volatility at $0.0064 per XRP. The digital token price of XRP hasn't had much relationship with the other cryptocurrency markets over the past two weeks.
Litecoin holds the fourth position with a market capitalization close to $200 million. Currently, LTC is roughly $3.80 and seems to be following a similar course as bitcoin. Many are curious about Litecoin's upcoming Segregated Witness implementation, as signaling will begin on January 28.
The privacy-centric cryptocurrency Monero has held significant value over the past two weeks and rests at $11.50 per XMR. Meanwhile, the notorious Ethereum Classic has managed to keep the sixth highest market cap, staying above a dollar at $1.20 per ETC. Dash, Augur, and Maidsafecoin have had notable increases over the past 24 hours. Steem has finally lost its grip and has been kicked from the top ten cryptocurrency market positions.
Notable Volume and Rebounds All-Around
Crypto-markets have seen quite a bit of volume over the past two weeks, with bitcoin taking the lion's share. However, Dash, Litecoin, and Monero have had sizable volume increases this past week as well. One notable mention this week is the anonymous cryptocurrency Zcoin, which has increased in value by over 81% in the past 24 hours. Attention has been mainly focused on bitcoin's price within the cryptocurrency community and the recent PBOC inspections.
Overall, most cryptocurrencies are experiencing small and healthy upswings just like bitcoin. Traders have seemed to find their price floors, with buying picking up and some starting to bet on long positions. At press time, the price of bitcoin is slowly rising upwards with an average of $830 per BTC across global exchanges.
What do you think of the current state of cryptocurrency markets at the moment? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.