Cryptos Start Minor Recovery

Major crypto currencies advanced considerably in the late hours of Tuesday trading to recover some of their lost ground over the past few days with the result being that the coin market cap continued rising by about $40 billion from its previous lows of less than $500 billion. It is instructive to note that the total coin market cap had soared to an unprecedented $840 billion in mid-December with almost all major crypto currencies achieving record all-time highs. That confidence was short lived however and beginning 22 December, the coin market cap has been consistently slumping although it was much worse last week when coins dropped dramatically by about 30% in a few hours wiping almost $200 billion off their total value.

The week continued rather uneventful but after recovering some of those massive losses, two further drops on Sunday and Monday continued to hit the crypto market hard. In fact as at yesterday, values for the major cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple were at last week's levels indicating no movement for recovery. The rally thrust the bitcoin price back across an important psychological barrier. Earlier on Tuesday, bitcoin's $10,000 support level had collapsed, plunging the flagship cryptocurrency back into four-figure territory. However, after consolidating at $9,900, the bitcoin price surged back to $11,000 and is currently trading at $11,112 on Bitfinex. This represents a 21 percent increase from its intraday low and works out to a $188.4 billion market cap. Still, the price has once again retreated below the $11,000 level.

Additionally this week's market movements also dealt Ethereum a severe blow - a blow from which it has not yet fully recovered. On Tuesday, the Ethereum price dipped below $1,000, declining as far as $905 on Bitfinex before reversing course. At present, Ethereum is valued at $996 - a 10 percent increase from its intraday low and a daily gain of four percent - which gives the second-largest cryptocurrency a $97.6 billion market cap. After dropping to below $1 for a few hours, Ripple managed to recover a substantial amount of lost ground and was trading at $1.36 as at press time - an increase of over 15% over the previous day's trading. This translates into a market cap of around $53 billion which is still way beyond its highs of well over $100 billion just a few weeks ago.

Bitcoin cash managed to crack the $28 billion barrier thanks to a six percent increase that raised its price to $1,656. The cardano price rose by five percent to $0.57, bringing its market cap to $14.9 billion. However the former was still way beyond its previous highs of close to $2,000 seen a few days ago.

Sixth-ranked EOS was the largest cryptocurrency to fall into decline, losing about one-half-of-one-percent of its value to reduce its price to just above $13. This should not be too concerning, though, as EOS was one of the top performers earlier in the week. The Litecoin price did not rise to as great a degree as many other top-tier coins, but it managed to advance by three percent in a volatile market. However Litecoin has proved to be a big disappointment having peaked at $350 in early December but is now trading at well below the $180 mark.

Next to ripple, stellar was the top performer among top 10-cryptocurrencies. The stellar price leaped by eight percent, raising its price to just under $0.50. This price bump may turn into a speculative rally, as payment processor Stripe stated today that it may add support for stellar's lumen token in the future after it ends support for bitcoin in April. This should see the price move up considerably although one cannot really predict what can happen with market volatility. NEM, the ninth-largest cryptocurrency, rose by five percent for the day, while NEO rounded out the top 10 with a six percent increase to $124. These modest increases have continued to push these currencies to the forefront in terms of market cap.