There is a very strong focus on the launch of Bitcoin Cash today. However, the rest of the cryptocurrency ecosystem is still here as well and things are happening around the clock. So far, it seems things quieted down a bit in the price department in anticipation of the BCH launch. Bitcoin’s overnight gains are wiped out and all other top 10 currencies are coming down a bit as well. It will be intriguing to see how things evolve over the next few hours.

Cryptocurrency Markets are all Over the Place

It is rather remarkable to see how cryptocurrencies evolve these days. Just yesterday, it appeared Bitcoin’s upward momentum would cause all other top 10 currencies to lose a lot of value. That trend has not materialized just yet, although things may still happen over the coming hours. Right now, it appears the markets are anticipating some big moves, but no currency is making any major moves. That doesn’t mean there are no gains to speak of, though, but everything needs to be put in its proper perspective as well.

Ethereum is the biggest winner, for the time being, with an 8.42% gain. After the losses sustained over the past few weeks, it is good to see Ethereum slowly recover some of the losses. Right now, one ETH is valued at US$211.8 on Coinmarketcap, although that value mainly seems to hinge on the current Bitcoin price. Considering how the Bitcoin price is virtually unchanged, Ethereum may very well go down again after the Bitcoin Cash fork goes into effect.

Ripple, Litecoin, and Dash are all noting very similar gains over the past 24 hours. All three currencies gained between 2.11% and 2.95% in value, which is a pretty solid gain, all things considered. This shows some currencies are effectively trying to decouple themselves from the Bitcoin price, but it is very difficult to do so, that much is evident. With the Bitcoin price still hanging on to that US$2,725 mark, the altcoin markets can go up or down very quickly in the coming hours.

There are some currencies effectively losing value as well. It has to be said, all of these losses are relatively small, with Monero dropping 0.19%, NEM losing 0.65% and IOTA going down by 0.75%. Looking at the grand scheme of things, all of these losses are neglectable, to say the least. It will be rather interesting to compare these values to the numbers we see in 24 hours from now. Rest assured there will be some market changes by that time, depending on how Bitcoin Cash decides to affect the market.

With the Bitcoin price holding its own for the time being, things can go either direction. More specifically, it appeared there would be a strong bull run overnight, as the price certainly increased quite a bit. The Bitcoin price hit US$2,918 at one point, which meant it could have easily hit US$3,000 if things hadn’t turned sour in the hours following this upward momentum. More specifically, Bitcoin dropped to US$2, 742 not too long after surpassing the US$2,900 mark.

It is unclear why the Bitcoin price saw this sudden retrace after the strong gains. It is certainly possible the Bitcoin Cash situation has something to do with it, yet no one can tell for sure. For now, a value around US$2,725 seems to be the sweet spot for Bitcoin, yet that situation can change on a whim’s notice. Interesting times are ahead for Bitcoin as well as any other top cryptocurrency these days. The introduction of BCH has the potential to shake things up quite a bit.

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