Markets Update: Top Crypto Assets Open 2019 With Slow Month of Trading

The leading cryptocurrency markets have seen a slow start to the year, with the top three markets by capitalization shedding between 10% and 37% since early January’s local highs. January has also seen volatility in market cap rankings, with XRP and ETH competing for the second largest crypto asset capitalization, and EOS, USDT, and BCH competing for a position within the top five.

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BCH Maintains Triple Figures Throughout January

After ending 2018 with a roughly 200% bounce from the all-time lows at the $75 area, BCH/USD has produced a slow start to 2019, slipping 36% from the Jan. 3 local monthly high of $175 to currently trade for approximately $110. When measured from the local top of $240 posted on Dec. 21, BCH has lost nearly 54 percent over the course of six weeks.

On Jan. 28, the markets saw significant selling pressure that drove BCH down 15 percent in just 12 hours to test support at $100. Since then, BCH has made slight gains amid consolidation, but appears poised for a retest of all-time lows should the current support area fail to hold.

When measured against BTC, BCH has also shed most of the gains it garnered during the late December bounce, with the current price of 0.032 BTC comprising a 43% drop from the Dec. 21 local high of 0.057 BTC, and a loss of 27% from January’s high of 0.044 BTC, with BCH currently trading for 0.032 BTC.

Despite the bearish price action, this past week’s selling pressure saw BCH/BTC retest the upper side of the descending trendline that appears to have guided price action over the course of the preceding six weeks. However, should the current support area fail to hold, it is likely that BCH will retest the all-time low area of 0.025 BTC.

Bitcoin cash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $1.96 billion. BCH market dominance has slipped by nearly half a percent since the start of the month, dropping from 2.20% to nearly 1.73%.

BTC Experiences Low Volatility During January

BTC/USD has traded within a tight range during 2019 so far. BTC began January trading for $3,700, before posting a monthly high of $4,100 on Jan. 8.

Since then, BTC steadily bled down to yesterday’s local low of $3,325, a 19% drop in three weeks. BTC currently has a market capitalization of nearly $60.6 billion, and a dominance of 53.42%, up 1.5% since the start of the year.

XRP Ranks Second by Market Cap for Most of January

Opening January trading for nearly $0.35, XRP/USD spent the first 10 days of 2019 oscillating within an approximately 10% range, before posting a monthly high of over $0.38 on Jan. 10. Since then, ripple has fallen by roughly 25%, with prices currently testing support at December’s lows of roughly $0.28.

Despite also producing a bearish start to 2019, the XRP/BTC charts show bullish price action, with XRP currently testing the support at the long-term key price area of 0.000084 BTC. However, XRP has fallen by nearly 12% since opening the year trading for 0.000095 BTC.

After starting the year as the second-ranked crypto asset by market cap with a dominance of roughly 11.50%, ripple slipped to third on Jan. 3 and Jan. 11. XRP has since regained its rank as the second largest crypto asset by capitalization, with XRP currently posting a market cap of $12.01 billion and a dominance of 10.57%.

ETH Posts Volatile Start to 2019

ETH/USD traded within a wide range during January, opening the year at roughly $135 before gaining over 25% in roughly one week. After posting a monthly high of approximately $170 on Jan. 6, ETH has since lost more than 37% against the dollar, with current prices testing support just below $110.

ETH/BTC started the year trading for roughly 0.035 BTC, before rallying over 17% in a week to post a three-monthly high of approximately 0.041 BTC on Jan. 6. Since then, ETH has fallen 26% when measuring against bitcoin core to currently trade for nearly 0.031 BTC.

ETH is currently the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a capitalization of $11.08 billion. ETH dominance has fallen from 11.05% at the start of January to 9.78% as of this writing.

What do you think the overall trend for 2019 will be? Bullish? Bearish? Sideways? Share your prediction in the comments section below!

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