If you look at the weekly charts of both Bitcoin and Ethereum, you will noticed that they pretty much just completed their FIRST RED WEEK since this "bubble" started. THAT'S OKAY! Really. Nothing goes up forever, and profits will be taken. At the moment, Ethereum appears to be just scratching the surface of a second week in the red, but only time will tell. Bitcoin actually had a second red week, but it was a blip on the radar.
I wanted to look at the coinmarketcap for these currencies. Two weeks ago, I chronicled Ethereum's breakneck gain on Bitcoin in market cap. https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@demogirl06/looking-at-the-pace-of-market-cap-accumulation-of-ethereum-vs-bitcoin
Since my most recent market cap analysis, the two currencies have finally DECREASED in total market cap (evidence also seen in price decrease).
Bitcoin's market cap decreased by less than 1 billion dollars (1/53). But Ethereum? Down a whopping 9 billion (28/37 from two weeks ago).
Why might this be? Why the relative stability in BTC but not ETH? Here I will muse.
Both took a needed correction, but Bitcoin's correction started 1 week earlier (BTC peaked on June 11, 2017 and market cap was > 47 billion). All markets are cyclical. Nothing goes up forever. Take a deep breath and understand that this will only be temporary.
New ICOs. Bitcoin and Ethereum became "cost prohibitive" in many people's minds--and those same people wanted to get on the band wagon of newer cheaper ICOs. The appeal of these new ICO's, of course, is multiplication. You can think of it that way, and that's fine. But a more realistic way of thinking about your investment portfolio is to consider TOTAL PERCENTAGE GAIN on investment. Does it matter if you have 1,000,000 coins of BatShitManiaCoin, or just 10 Litecoin? Not really if both investments are $300 and each gains 10%.
People who were already in crypto moved their money out of Bitcoin (which is the "beginner's" trustworthy coin, easy to understand and easy to obtain, comparatively) and into riskier coins. See below that interest in how to buy bitcoin was already waning.
But buying Ethereum? It benefited from a lot of great press and you see the double bump in interest in the coin, which could explain why it corrected later than bitcoin did.
Meanwhile, while BTC and ETH were going down, lesser known coins were absorbing the interest:
Antshares:
Siacoin:
Iota:
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, but you get the idea. ICOs are HOT! So are newly available coins on whatever exchange you prefer to use. "This just in! Litecoin to be added to Coinbase!" and BOOM! The coin goes up because it is accessible.
The thing to remember is that not all coins are the same. Some act like "money" (Bitcoin, Monero, Litecoin, etc.), some are good as fuel for smart-contracts and platforms (Ethereum, Antshares), some are decentralized internet platforms (Maidsafe, Siacoin, etc.), some are silly (Dogecoin), some are trying to corner certain markets (Potcoin, Coffeecoin). I'm barely scratching the surface.
Take aways: study your coin. Read the white papers. Know how it's different than other coins. Look for a solid internet presence. Diversify in type of coin function, not just number of coins.
And wait out the correction, because Bitcoin and Ethereum will go back up.