Everything is looking calm and quiet in the world of cryptocurrency. That is a more than welcome change after many weeks of price volatility and uncertainty. The Bitcoin price is holding its own around the US$3,175 mark for the time being, whereas other currencies have noted some gains or small losses. Antshares, or NEO as it is known these days, is clearly the winner of the weekend with a 25.8% gain.
Bitcoin Price Holds Firm, Altcoins Benefit Too
In the normal world of cryptocurrency as we know it, a Bitcoin price gain often leads to altcoins bleeding value. That has been the case for many years now, but it seems like the trend reverses every so often. More specifically, the recent Bitcoin price gains to US$3,175 and beyond have not caused any major damage to altcoins yet. Bitcoin Cash is the exception, but that project will face its own struggles for quite some time to come, regardless of how the Bitcoin price evolves. It is still the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap but losing ground quickly these days.
What is rather remarkable is how Ethereum has gained in value as well. The past few months have not been easy for this alternative currency. Network issues, ICO hacks, and other factors drove its price down by quite a bit. Things are finally looking up again for Ethereum, though, thanks to a 7.25% gain in the past 24 hours. Ethereum also has slightly more trading volume than Bitcoin, which could hint at more price gains in the near future.
Prices for Litecoin, NEM, Ethereum Classic, and Dash have all remained virtually unchanged, barring some small losses and gains. Status quo in the cryptocurrency world is a very rare sight to behold, and this looks to be one of the few times it can actually be witnessed. Rest assured this situation may look very different in just a few hours, but at the time of writing, it is almost a peaceful picture to behold.
That being said, there is one currency which has suddenly catapulted itself into the top 10. We discussed the concept of Antshares — now known as NEO — not too long ago. The project aims to become the Ethereum of China, which is a pretty bold statement. It is good to see projects with no lack of ambition these days. There have been far too many clones and copycat coins over these past few years; that much is evident. NEO is now the tenth-largest currency by market cap, thanks to a 25.84% gain over the past 24 hours.
There are no boring days in the world of cryptocurrency, even when most top altcoins remain stable. The big news of this weekend is how Bitcoin finally broke its previous all-time high and has been seemingly able to hold its own without much effort. It’s nice to see a Bitcoin price of US$3,175 and higher, as it has been coming for some time now. With a market cap of nearly US$53B, Bitcoin looks a lot stronger now than ever before. Maintaining this position for an extended period of time will still be a challenge, even for the king of cryptocurrencies.
Next week will be an interesting period to keep an eye on cryptocurrency pricing charts. No major news is expected, but rest assured market manipulators and speculators will try to shake things up once again. It is unclear what this might mean for the Bitcoin price over the next few days, though. Most of the volume pushing its price up came from Asia. That volume could dry up pretty quickly and subsequently send prices crashing down again. These price charts will look very different a week from now; that much is almost a certainty.
