Markets Update: Bearish Momentum Grips Leading Cryptocurrencies After BTC Tests ATH Trendline

The cryptocurrency markets have produced a slight retracement in response to bitcoin core (BTC) testing a long-term descending trendline dating back to December 2017’s record highs. The dip has seen bitcoin cash (BCH) slip back below $150, and BTC fail to hold above $4,000. As of this writing, ripple (XRP) has again overtaken ethereum (ETH) to rank as the largest altcoin by market cap.

Also Read: It’s Time We Began Pricing Things in Satoshis

Combined Cryptocurrency Market Capitalization Loses $11.5 Billion in One Day

The cryptocurrency markets have pulled back following BTC forming a third point of contact with a major descending trendline stemming from the record highs posted nearly 25 months ago.

At approximately 01:00 EDT, BTC fell by nearly 6% within an hour. The move reversed all gains generated by the spike above $4,000 that was posted on Jan. 6, sending uncertainty across the markets.

As of this writing, BTC has a market cap of nearly $66.81 billion and a market dominance of 52.5%. BTC is currently trading for $3,860 on Bitfinex and $3,775 on Bitstamp. The retracement saw the combined capitalization of all cryptocurrencies fall by more than $11.5 billion, dropping from nearly $138.9 billion to $127.1 billion currently.

BCH Loses 15% in Seven Hours

Of the leading markets, BCH was among the hardest hit, shedding 15% against the dollar in just seven hours.

As of this writing, BCH is priced just below $140, the lowest the market has traded since Dec. 20. When measuring against BTC, BCH has fallen by 10% in the last seven hours and is currently trading for 0.036 BTC.

BCH is currently the fourth largest cryptocurrency market with a capitalization of $2.44 billion. BCH has a market dominance of roughly 1.9%.

XRP and ETH Vie for Second Largest Market Cap

As of this writing, XRP is the second largest cryptocurrency market with a capitalization of $14.16. XRP currently comprises 11.05% of the total cryptocurrency capitalization.

Ripple was among the least heavily hit markets by today’s bloodshed, falling 9% in the last seven hours to trade for $0.35 and 3.7% in the last 12 hours against BTC to currently trade for roughly 90,500 satoshis.

XRP was able to dethrone ETH as the second largest crypto market after ETH fell by 12% in less than eight hours to currently trade for $134. When measuring against BTC, ETH fell by 6.5% to trade for nearly 0.035 BTC.

ETH is currently the third largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $14.01 billion and a market dominance of 10.95%.

What cryptocurrency do you expect to spend the largest part of 2019 as the largest altcoin by capitalization? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Tradingview

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