As was somewhat expected, the Bitcoin bulls have finally calmed down a bit. After some spectacular gains all week, the weekend will seemingly bring the opposite. Although losses are still minimal, it is evident there will be some changes moving forward. The Ethereum price, on the other hand, is approaching US$300 again. It has been a rough week for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Ethereum Price is Heading North Again
Whenever the Bitcoin price goes up – or down, for that matter – altcoins will inevitably suffer. Strong Bitcoin price gains have made the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap almost look like play money. More specifically, not too long ago, there were discussions regarding Ethereum potentially surpassing Bitcoin in terms of its market cap. Those plans – known as the flippening – have been thrown out the window completely for the time being.
More specifically, Bitcoin’s market cap is almost seven times larger than Ethereum’s right now. However, that doesn’t mean the Ethereum price can’t make a strong comeback and close that gap over time. To that end, we’ve seen a 2.06% Ethereum price increase over the past 24 hours. That may not be all that spectacular to the untrained eye, but there are very few coins reporting bigger gains right now. The 3.56% gain against Bitcoin itself shouldn’t be overlooked either by any means.
The past week has been pretty rough for the Ethereum price overall. More specifically, there was no real stable ground all week, despite an extended period above US$304 a few days ago. Over the past 48 hours, the Ethereum price has dipped again and reached a low of US$282.5. These woes are seemingly behind us now that the price is heading back to the US$300 mark. This doesn’t mean we will see the Ethereum price suddenly stabilize, though.
One thing clearly working in Ethereum’s favor is its increased trading volume of late. On any other day, a volume of nearly US$600 million would seem pretty spectacular for an altcoin, but things have changed a lot. During its recent uptrend, Bitcoin has generated between 3 and 4 billion USD in volume per day. This makes Ethereum pale in comparison, although things are slowly changing in favor of this digital currency again. If the volume were to pick up a bit more, we might see some price stability achieved above the US$300 mark before the weekend is over.
Bithumb is dominating most altcoin markets in terms of trading volume these days. The same applies to Ethereum, as this Korean exchange is generating over 12% of all trades. Bitfinex and Poloniex complete the top three, with no other platform coming close right now. It is also worth mentioning all Korean exchanges currently value Ethereum at over US$300. This may be a sign of things to come, although there have always been minor price discrepancies across exchanges.
In the end, it is hard to predict where the Ethereum price is headed next. There will be some momentum to carry it over US$300 sooner or later. Maintaining that value while Bitcoin is still going strong – despite a small dip – will be a very tough challenge. This weekend may prove to be rather interesting when it comes to cryptocurrency trading, as everything is possible and nothing has been set in stone. A volatile weekend may be the only logical outcome, although it is still too early to make accurate predictions.
