Following the lowest month for over a year in December markets started to recover over the New Year. Progress continued steadily until January 10th by which time markets had recovered almost 40%. The bulls did not stay around for long though as a huge dump wiped out $16 billion in two days sending markets back down towards their lowest levels again. Over the month markets lost 8.6% ending at just over $115 billion total capitalization.
Bitcoin hit a huge wall of resistance at $4,000 which it could not overcome and further losses were predicted. It came as no surprise then when BTC dumped to its next support turned resistance level of $3,600. This broke down before the end of the month sending Bitcoin lower still, ending January 8% down at $3,440.
January Crypto Winners
Litecoin is one of the few crypto assets that ended January higher than it started. LTC only made 3% but it was enough to keep it afloat while those around it crumbled. Litecoin ended January at $31.60 after reaching a monthly high of $40.
Tron surged in January starting out at $0.019 and ending at $0.026. The BitTorrent token launch and associated airdrops to TRX holders has been the primary factor in Tron’s performance and impressive 37% gain over the month.
Binance Coin also ended January marginally higher than it started. BNB was just under $6 on New Year’s day and finished the month 3% higher enabling it to flip Monero and Iota for twelfth spot.
January Crypto Losers
Ethereum’s downward spiral accelerated in January as the long awaited Constantinople hard fork was delayed. ETH got smashed again dumping 20% over the duration of the month to end it battered and bruised at $107 after reaching $160 a week after new year.
XRP losses were less which enabled the Ripple token to extend its lead over Ethereum and hold on to second spot. Starting out at $0.355 XRP ended January 12% lower at $0.311. It made two efforts at recovery but the sellers were just too strong to maintain them.
EOS retracted by almost 10% in January as it fell from $2.57 to $2.32 by the end of it. The only good news is that it moved up to fourth in the market cap chart as losses were greater for the altcoins above it.
Both Tether and EOS have flipped Bitcoin Cash which dumped a whopping 30% in January ending the month at $115. BCH has been one of the largest crashes of all cryptos dumping over 97% since its all-time high.
Stellar has had a rotten time in January dumping 26% to below ten cents. The SDF has made good fundamental progress but that could not prevent XLM dumping down to ninth place in the market cap charts, hitting a new low for 15 months, and ending January at $0.083.
Bitcoin SV seems to have died as quickly as it was born. The BCH offshoot dumped 28% in January ending the month at a lowly $64 after starting it at $90.
Looking at altcoins in the top twenty paints an equally bleak picture for most of them. Cardano, which has lost almost every month over the past year, dumped another 6% as did Monero. Iota took a beating in January dumping 27% and sliding two spots further down the market cap chart. Dash also got bashed with a 14% slide.
NEO dropped 7% in January but it fared much better than Ethereum Classic which dumped 22%. NEM, which is facing major financing woes, dumped 33% over the course of January. Rounding out the top twenty is Zcash which shed 12%. The crumbling market caps has enabled another stablecoin to end the top twenty, Coinbase and Circle’s USD Coin is currently at nineteenth spot with $292 million cap.
The minor recovery from 2018 lows did not last long for most cryptos resulting in them ending January lower than they began it. In summary January’s crypto winners were Tron, Litecoin and Binance Coin while those dumping the hardest were Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Stellar, Iota and NEM.
All figures from Coinmarketcap.com
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