Tuesday was a relatively quiet day for most cryptocurrencies in terms of price moves, with Ripple's 11% decline the most notable exception. Although bitcoin (BTC-USD) and most of the rest of the top 10 weren't moving too drastically, there was some major news in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency world today. A high-profile Fed president and notable bitcoin critic Jamie Dimon gave some fresh commentary, and we learned that leveraged bitcoin ETFs could be in the works.
Today's cryptocurrency prices
Here's a look at the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours.
|
Cryptocurrency Name (Code) |
Price in U.S. Dollars |
Day's Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Bitcoin (BTC) |
$14,762.00 |
(1.3%) |
|
Ethereum (ETH) |
$1,199.50 |
5.2% |
|
Ripple (XRP) |
$2.20 |
(10.7%) |
|
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) |
$2,406.70 |
1.1% |
|
Cardano (ADA) |
$0.86 |
(4.3%) |
|
NEM (XEM) |
$1.58 |
(1.2%) |
|
Litecoin (LTC) |
$252.98 |
(1.8%) |
|
Stellar (XLM) |
$0.61 |
(3.5%) |
|
IOTA (MIOTA) |
$3.66 |
(4.7%) |
|
TRON (TRX) |
$0.13 |
(8%) |
Data source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of 2:25 p.m. EST, and prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate.
Generally speaking, it has been a mildly negative day for cryptocurrencies, with most of the top 10 off by just a few percentage points. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell a bit further today after a more significant drop on Monday, but a 1.3% move is quite insignificant, given bitcoin's usual volatility.
Image source: Getty Images.
Elsewhere, Ethereum (ETH-USD) continued its rally and is sitting just under its all-time high price, while Tron continues to give back some of its tremendous gains from last week. And Ripple, which also touched an all-time high last week, continued to retreat after a sharp drop over the past few days.
Ripple continues its decline
Bitcoin had a great year in 2017, but Ripple (XRP-USD) blew it out of the water. Ripple (XRP-USD) ended the year up 35,000%, and added to those gains during the first week of 2018. Ripple has attracted considerable investor attention for its high-profile partnerships with companies such as American Express and Santander, and its currency, officially known as the XRP, is currently in use by more than 100 financial institutions, according to Ripple.
The drop in Ripple (XRP-USD) this week could simply be profit-taking after the tremendous run, so we'll have to wait and see where the currency settles after the volatility subsides.
Some major news items, despite the lack of movement
Although it was apparently not enough to significantly move the price of bitcoin, some financial industry heavyweights made comments about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and a major leveraged ETF company is applying to get into the bitcoin game.
- Neel Kashkari, Minneapolis Federal Reserve president, said that bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other cryptocurrencies aren't a serious threat to the U.S. dollar. His reasoning is that anyone can create a cryptocurrency, so the barrier to entry is essentially zero. With nearly 1,400 cryptocurrencies in existence, it's not hard to see why he feels this way. Kashkari also pushed back on the notion that bitcoin is inflation-proof, saying that although there's a finite amount of bitcoins that will ever be mined, the existence of other digital currencies can have an inflationary effect.
- One of bitcoin's biggest critics, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, told Fox Business that he regrets saying that bitcoin is a fraud in September 2017. Dimon said that "the blockchain is real," but expressed concern on specific cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
- Direxion Asset Management is applying to launch five new bitcoin ETFs, which would all use leverage, track the inverse of bitcoin prices, or both. For example, the Direxion Daily Bitcoin 2X Bull Shares would seek to return twice the daily performance of bitcoin. Early reports indicate that the approval process could take six to nine months.
