The cryptocurrency market showed a wave of green on Monday, led by a sizable advance in EOS, as prices clawed back from yearly lows and extreme oversold conditions.
Market Update
Cryptocurrency prices recovered $6 billion in lost market cap over the last 24 hours, bringing the total value to $110.2 billion. The total market fell on Saturday to its lowest level in 16 months as bitcoin fell below $3,200. This allowed Tether (USDT) to scale the crypto market cap rankings, where it peaked in the no. 4 position. As of Monday, the dollar-backed stablecoin was in the no. 6 spot at $1.9 billion in total value.
EOS was by far the biggest gainer at the start of the week; prices recovered 22% to $2.40, the highest in nearly two weeks. EOS fell below $1.50 during the depths of the market selloff, which hampered the ability of block producers to carry out their operations. EOS has also been pressured by speculation that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will throw the book at Block.One, the network’s parent company, over its year-long crowdsale in which it raised $4 billion.
The bitcoin price advanced 5.5% to $3,453, as trade volumes strengthened to $4.5 billion on virtual currency exchanges. Bitcoin cash (BCH) jumped 10% to $90.16. Litecoin climbed 8.9% to reach $28.58. Tron was also back in the top-ten, rising 4.7% to $0.0138.
Since bottoming at $100.4 billion on Saturday, the cryptocurrency market cap has recovered $10 billion. Daily trade volumes have also rebounded 15% to $13.1 billion.
Mass Adoption Five Years Away – BitPay
Stephen Pair, the CEO of crypto payments plaform BitPay, believes widespread cryptocurrency adoption is still three-to-five years away. Against this backdrop, it’s reasonable to expect widespread fluctuations in market value and investor sentiment for the foreseeable future.
“I used to say 10 years, but now I think it’s more like 3-5 years until you can go into a restaurant, a retail establishment, and just everybody’s going to expect that that store will be able to accept a blockchain payment,” Pair said in an interview with CNBC.
The BitPay executive was recently quoted as saying that speculation, and not real-world use cases, was driving crypto valuations. This is true both of the bull market that peaked in January and the subsequent collapse that pushed many blockchain projects to insolvency.
BitPay currently processes $1 billion in transactions annually. Pair expects this number to grow ten-fold in the foreseeable future as crypto payments become democratized.
Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.