The crypto markets retracted this week, with ethereum and many altcoins posting declines greater than 10%. The bitcoin price, however, swam against the current to return a weekly gain of 3%.
Bitcoin’s climb was not enough to prop up the total crypto market cap. The total value of all cryptocurrencies fell from about $95 billion a week ago to $89 billion on July 31.
Bitcoin Price Climbs Despite Impending Bitcoin Cash Fork
The Bitcoin Cash hard fork is just hours away, but the bitcoin price continues to climb. In the past day, the bitcoin price has risen nearly 5%, crossing the $2,800 mark to reach its present value of $2,802. Bitcoin now has a market cap of more than $46 billion and a commanding lead of nearly $28 billion over ethereum.
One potential reason for the bitcoin price climb is that since Bitcoin Cash is forking the Bitcoin blockchain, bitcoin holders will receive a bitcoin cash “airdrop” correlating to their balance on the original blockchain. Bitcoin Cash futures are trading below $300, but it is not known what the price will be when the actual coin debuts. Investors could be looking to sell Bitcoin Cash for a quick profit, or they could genuinely believe the forked coin has a chance to disrupt the markets.
Ethereum Price Down 14% for the Week
July was not friendly to ether holders. The ethereum price posted a month-long decline, falling below $200 after entering the month above $280. In the past week alone, the ethereum price has declined by nearly 14% to its present value of $196. At $18.3 billion, ethereum’s market cap is now less than 40% the size of bitcoin’s.
Ripple Price Leads Widespread Altcoin Retreat
Normally, bitcoin price increases have a correlative effect on altcoins. This week, however, altcoin prices hemorrhaged even as bitcoin posted gains. Counting ethereum, six coins in the top 10 declined by more than 10% during the last week of July.
The ripple price led the retreat, sliding 2% for the day and 16% for the week. Ripple ends July with a market cap of just $6.3 billion after beginning the month at about $10 billion.
The altcoin market pullback reduced the litecoin price to $39 for a weekly decline of 11%. Litecoin’s market cap sits just $54 million above the $2 billion threshold. The NEM price weathered the storm better than most coins, holding steady at $0.165 for the day and declining 2% for the week. The Dash price dropped to $171 for a seven-day decline of 16%.
Ethereum classic, whose market cap is just $15 million below that of Dash, could not capitalize on the opportunity to pass Dash in the rankings. The ethereum classic price fell 3% for the day and 14% for the week.
The IOTA price dipped by more than 5% on Monday, reversing the progress it had made earlier in the week. It currently sits at $0.254. Monero and EOS both experienced moderate declines, while the Stratis price plunged by 20% for the week.
Twelfth-ranked BitConnect was the largest coin other than bitcoin to post positive weekly returns. Bolstered by a 7% daily increase, the BitConnect price rose to $66.
Bitcoin Cash (Futures) Price Slides
The Bitcoin Cash hard fork has yet to take place, but futures have been trading on ViaBTC for more than a week. Traders could obtain BCC futures (this symbol is not standardized across all exchanges) by temporarily freezing BTC on the exchange.
Since its listing, the bitcoin cash price has experienced a steady decline. The bitcoin cash price began the week at about $550 but has fallen below the $500, $400, and $300 thresholds. At present, CoinMarketCap lists the price of bitcoin cash futures at $278.
Bitcoin Dominance Crosses 50%
Bitcoin absorbed an additional 4% of the total market cap this week, increasing its share from 47.4% to 51.7%. Bitcoin dominance has now surpassed 50% for four consecutive days, a feat it has not accomplished since May.
Ethereum’s market share has declined from 22% on July 24 to 20.5% on July 31. Ripple’s slice, meanwhile, has fallen to 7%.
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