August 12: Crypto markets are seeing solid gains today in a fresh attempt at recovery following recent losses.
Bitcoin (BTC) dominance –– or the percentage of total crypto market cap that is Bitcoin’s –– is continuing to see a 2018 record-high percentage, at close to 50.9 percent. After the leading coin decoupled from the wider market yesterday –– holding its gains while other cryptos floundered –– healthy growth has today been distributed across virtually all of the major cryptocurrencies, as Coin360 data shows.
Market visualization from Coin360
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at around $6,310 at press time, up a strong 3.45 percent on the day, according to Cointelegraph’s Bitcoin price index. The top coin has seen a 24-hour high of $6,455, but has failed to break through $6,500 resistance, trading sideways within the $6,300-400 range for most of today. Having dipped briefly down to a low around $6,209, Bitcoin has recovered in the couple of hours before press time to hold just above the $6,300 price point. Weekly losses remain at about 10 percent, while on the month Bitcoin is up around 1.42 percent.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index
Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $322, up a solid 5.31 percent on the day. After plummeting as low as $306 in evening trading hours yesterday, the altcoin saw a strong push upwards to test the $330 mark. These fleeting attempts to break to a higher price point failed to hold, and the altcoin has since retraced towards the $320 mark. Ethereum’s losses on its weekly chart are at a little over 20 percent, with monthly losses heftier still, at almost 25 percent.
Ethereum’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Ethereum Price Index
On CoinMarketCap’s listings, all of the top 25 crypto assets by market cap are seeing a healthy flush of green, with gains on the day pushing as high as around 5-6 percent.
Among the top ten coins by market cap, Stellar (XLM) and Litecoin (LTC) are up the most, both seeing almost 6 percent growth on the day.
Although a Facebook spokesperson yesterday denied rumors that the social media giant had been considering a potential partnership to build a Facebook variant of a Stellar blockchain, the asset is nonetheless riding positive momentum, which has been particularly strong on the XLM/USD chart.
Stellar’s 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Another leading performer among the top ten coins is anonymity-oriented altcoin Monero (XMR), in 10th place by market cap, up almost 4 percent and valued around $93.66 at press time.
Among the top twenty coins by market cap, IOTA (MIOTA), number 11th, is up 4.44 percent and is trading at $0.54 at press time. As seen across the crypto markets, the altcoin is still down on its weekly chart, but has seen a burst of upwards momentum as of evening trading hours August 11.
IOTA’s 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Still within the context of the top twenty ranked coins, NEO and Tezos (XTZ) are seeing stronger-than-average growth, both up around 4 percent.
As noted, for the second day running, Bitcoin’s share of the total market cap is above 50 percent and is pushing 51 percent at press time. BTC dominance has been consistently on the rise as of mid-May, while the second-ranked crypto, Ethereum, has seen a downtrend on the month in terms of its total market cap share, down to around 15 percent today.
3-month chart of cryptocurrencies by dominance. Source CoinMarketcap
Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $214.7 billion at press time, close to its lowest levels on the three-month chart, only hitting lower points in the past two days, and up slightly from yesterday’s low around $207 billion. As compared with $410.6 billion in mid-May, the market is coming bearishly close to a 50 percent decline.
3-month chart of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap
Alongside retail and institutional HODLers, crypto miners are feeling the pinch of the protracted bear market. Analysts have this week forecast that graphic processing units (GPU) manufacturing giant Nvidia will see a decline in its revenue from sales of crypto mining hardware, which had accounted for over 9 percent of overall revenue in its 2018 Q1 report.
Meanwhile, the director of the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) this week revealed that the agency has seen a surge in filings of crypto-related Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), which now reportedly exceed 1,500 in number per month.
This rising figure was presented as a positive indicator, with the director emphasizing that compliance with regulatory obligations is increasingly important given that “harm can be done with devastatingly increasing speed, breadth, and obscurity in the digital world.”
