Market Watch: Bitcoin Struggles at $11,000 and Altcoins Still Tremendously Volatile

The cryptocurrency markets have been experiencing tremendous volatility over the last few weeks, with almost all the top 10 coins seeing losses of more than 2% today. Although the market leader, Bitcoin, remained buoyant yesterday despite US President Donald Trump’s negative tweet regarding digital assets, the coin is currently worth $11,385, indicating a 2.61% loss on the day.

Just as expected, when King Bitcoin goes down, altcoins follow suit. The prices of Ether and XRP are down by 2.68% and 3.91%, hovering around $269.13 and $0.33 respectively. 

The total market cap is ~$311 billion | Bitcoin’s market cap is ~$202 billion | BTC dominance stands at 65.1%

Major Crypto Headlines

There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Trump Bashes Bitcoin. The US president made some negative comments about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in a post on Twitter, stating that cryptos are based on “thin air,” highly volatile, and facilitate criminal activities. 

Brazilian State Launches Blockchain Platform for Government Contract Bids. The state of Bahia has reportedly created a transparent and secure blockchain solution dubbed “Online Bid Solution” (SOL) for tracking public bidding on government contracts. 

CEO of BitFunder Exchange Gets 14 Months in Prison for Fraud, Obstruction. Jon Montrol, founder of defunct BitFunder and the WeExchange trading platform, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for securities fraud and obstruction of justice.

Most Significant Winners and Losers

Ink (83.56%)

Despite the heavy splash of red visible across the crypto markets today, INK is riding high with a 83.56% price rise in the last 24 hours. Although INK is the most significant gainer today, the cryptocurrency is still down by 99% since its Dec. 2017 ATH of $0.94. At the time of writing, INK was trading at $0.0149 with lots of volatility on its weekly chart. 

Red Pulse Phoenix (69.07%)

PHX, a token issued on the NEO blockchain, saw a sharp rise in value in the last hour, making it the second-biggest gainer on the day. With a 69.07% increase against the dollar, PHX has hit a seven-day peak at $0.014, and its market cap has reached $12,004,103. The token could retrace to the $0.008 level, however, as there is no announcement in sight. 

LightChain (-48.00%)

LightChain (LIGHT) looks like another abandoned project, and investors in this token are surely feeling regret as its value gradually head towards zero. LIGHT is down by 48% against the dollar to $0.000021 per token. Further movement to the downside would completely erase the token’s value, and that may not be far off.