New Year New ETH: Ether Retakes 2nd Place in Crypto Market Cap Swing
Amid 2018’s cryptoeconomy correction, ether was acutely overtaken by XRP in the market cap rat race. Now, ETH’s said hello to the new year by surging back into the market position behind the reigning crypto bellwether, bitcoin.
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Ether Sees Spike on Green Day for Top 10 Coins
On January 2nd, the ether price rose as much as 14 percent on the day amid a trading volume surge that put the Ethereum blockchain’s “gas” in the cryptoeconomy’s second position by market cap once more.
At press time, ether’s market capitalization was hovering around $15.8 billion USD atop a rise over XRP’s $15.3 billion cap, with XRP sliding again — at least for now — into the market’s third position.
That shift came after XRP had spent the autumn of 2018 atop ETH and after ETH had held the cryptoeconomy’s second position for most of 2017 and the first two quarters of 2018.
As for the ether price itself, it saw the largest uptick on the day among the top 10 big-cap cryptocurrencies in having risen by more than 13 percent in 24 hours.
What’s driving that acute surge is anyone’s guess. Ethereum’s Constantinople ugrade arrives in mid-January, so perhaps that’s been one driver. But ETH’s latest rise wasn’t isolated, as the vast majority of the top 100 cryptocurrencies were simultaneously in the green as well.
Wall Street must be buying $ETH with their Christmas bonuses today!
— Crypto Bobby (@crypto_bobby) January 2, 2019
For its part, bitcoin had risen just shy of four percent to $3,856 since New Year’s Day in kind. XRP was up by a similar margin to $0.37, and bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin had risen to $162 and $32 respectively.
In contrast, the up day for cryptocurrencies came as the U.S. stock market was entering 2019 in the red.
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) January 2, 2019
Bitcoin Dominance? Check
Bitcoin has entered 2019 with just over half the market capitalization of the overall cryptoeconomy, its dominance now at 50.99 percent.
As such, altcoins account for $64.7 billion of the current $132 billion crypto market, whereas bitcoin is holding its cut above that at $67.3 billion.
With 2018 officially behind us, it’s safe to say no “flippening” occurred and bitcoin has maintained its crown in the cryptoverse for yet another year.
What the next 12 months will bring for bitcoin and the cryptoeconomy remains to be seen, and the coming decade is even less clear.
Things could always get uglier in the short-term, of course. A $2,000 BTC price tag isn’t totally unfathomable in the interim. But 2019 looks to be another year of growth for Bitcoin, whether the BTC price follows technical advancements or not.
What’s your take? Will ether finish 2019 as the cryptoeconomy’s 2nd biggest crypto per market cap, or is there room for other coins to make headway near the top? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images via CoinBillboard, Pixabay
