Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Ripple Hits Historic Milestone as Bitcoin Exhaustion Favors Alternatives

Published 21/12/2017, 16:19
Updated 21/12/2017, 16:28
© Reuters.  Bitcoin continues week's decline and alt currency seekers pile into Ripple

© Reuters. Bitcoin continues week's decline and alt currency seekers pile into Ripple

Investing.com – Ripple surged past a historic milestone of $1 on Thursday even as Bitcoin, the largest digital currency by market capitalization, continued its decline.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency with gains of more than 1,000% this year alone, was facing its fifth consecutive day of losses on Thursday. It is down around 20% since hitting an all-time high on Sunday (it trades 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

That record high coincided with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)’s launch of its own Bitcoin Futures on Sunday following rival CBOE’s own version just a week earlier.

The creation of these derivatives from regulated exchanges has fueled speculation that the move will attract interest from institutional investors who have been kept on the sidelines due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are generally unregulated, which prevents their participation.

Some observers have attributed this week’s losses to “buy the rumor, sell the news”, while others suggested that Bitcoin was simply long overdue for a correction.

Bitcoin’s performance this week has likely fueled investor appetite for alternatives. Ripple is one of these options and rallied around 40% on Thursday. It is currently the fourth largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $40.23 billion, following behind Bitcoin ($283.22 billion) Ethereum ($83.57 billion) and Bitcoin offshoot Bitcoin Cash ($62.43 billion).

Ripple, which was designed for banks and global money transfers, offers a more affordable price-tag than many rivals in the cryptocurrency world.

As of 11:09AM ET (16:09GMT), Ripple jumped 33.30% to $0.9530, off an intraday high of $1.07442.

Elsewhere in cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin traded down 5.36% to $15,546, furthering its decline from last Sunday, while Ethereum lost 2.62% to $774.00.

Bitcoin Cash led decliners as it slumped 18.07% to $3.025.20. Of note, Bitcoin’s offshoot -created in a “fork” from the world’s largest digital currency on August 1 in a move that was designed to be able to process transactions more quickly at a lower cost- was coming off a 5-day rally from $1,774.10.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.