The cryptocurrency markets continue to fall despite strong fundamentals, and the market decline has been largely led by tokens. The continued decline precedes a short lived, yet promising, rally when Bitcoin rose to approximately $8,400 on July 24th before gradually falling to lows of $6,100 on August 10th.
Major Tokens Setting New Yearly Lows
Although Bitcoin has fallen nearly 30% from its monthly highs, altcoins have been especially affected by the market decline. Currencies like EOS and Ethereum have been pushed to yearly lows and haven’t seen the same upside as Bitcoin during short-term rallies.
While Bitcoin’s market cap has decreased from monthly highs of $145 billion on July 24th to its current market cap of $108 billion at the time of writing, Ethereum’s market cap has nearly halved from its monthly highs of nearly $52 billion on July 17th to its current levels of just over $28 billion. EOS has followed Ethereum’s price action closely, also halving its market cap from just over $8 billion on July 17th to its current levels of just over $4 billion.
Part of the reason for the massive decline in token pricing is increasing Bitcoin dominance, which is pulling investments from altcoins with unproven or presently unutilized products. It is clear that many cryptocurrency investors view Bitcoin as the sole cryptocurrency with adequately proven utility and endurance, as Bitcoin has been through many crashes since its birth in 2009.
Fundamentals Strong, Other Factors Could Influence Micro-Price Movements
Although the fundamentals for many coins in the markets are incredibly strong, the prices clearly aren’t reflecting these revelations and investors are more concerned with upcoming events that could affect prices.
Fundamentals that will ultimately affect the markets include an increasing amount of options that allow for institutional investments, like Coinbase Custody, Gemini’s custodial options, as well as New York Stock Exchange parent company ICE’s foray into the industry. Unfortunately for investors, these revelations have not yet led to substantial and sustainable price movements.
Currently, price action indicates that investors, and moreover traders, are more interested in events that could affect the immediate price action of Bitcoin, and that they are mainly looking towards upcoming Securities and Exchange Commission decisions regarding Bitcoin ETF approvals.
The Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF denial caused ripples through the markets, although the resulting decline was short-lived as many anticipated the ETF to be denied due to a variety of factors. The ETF that most investors are eyeing as a huge factor in upcoming price action is the CBoE VanEck/SolidX ETF which is seen by the majority of investors as the most likely ETF to be approved.
Following the SEC’s decision to delay the CBoE VanEck/SolidX ETF, Bitcoin’s price fell nearly $500 instantly after the news broke. In addition to Bitcoin’s price falling, the overall cryptocurrency markets fell from daily highs of $257 billion to daily lows of $236 billion. Investors should be prepared to see both Bitcoin and alt-coins rise or fall tremendously depending on the ETF verdict, which is scheduled for September 30th, 2018.
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