Bitcoin has been steadily holding value in a sideways pattern and is currently priced at $897, while it has jumped even above $920 this week. The digital currency broke the $900 range just before The North American Bitcoin Conference, and rose another 15% in value after Trump’s inauguration ceremony. Many people believe Trump’s policies will be good for cryptocurrency and Bitcoin’s price also gained in value when he was first elected. This speculation may prove to come true with crypto-proponents like Peter Thiel joining the Trump team and rumors of Balaji Srinivasan leading the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
All eyes have also been focused on China over the past week as the central bank inspections revealed new exchange policies. The top three Chinese exchanges have decided to add fees to routine trading transactions, and the new rules will come to fruition at the end of the month.
The news had little effect on the trading markets as Bitcoin’s price was unfazed by this announcement. A stark contrast to the week prior, when the rumor mill from China sparked volatile market activity.
The second highest valued cryptocurrency in the space, Ethereum, has remained fairly stable over the course of the week. Ether is currently worth $10.50 USD per ETH, and the market is down 0.58 percent at press time. Ripple has also had a nonvolatile market this past week and has very slowly increased in value. One XRP is now getting closer to being worth one U.S. penny.
The fourth highest market capitalization is still commanded by Litecoin. LTC is currently worth $3.85 at press time and has been on an upward trend. Litecoin Core version 0.13.2 has been released to the public, and Segregated Witness has been activated on the LTC testnet. The anonymous cryptocurrency, Monero, has continued its rise in value into the new year. The fifth most valued crypto is now worth $12 per XMR and has been an interesting market to watch.
Ethereum Classic has kept its value above $1.25 per ETC, and many community members have been excited about the recently announced ETC trust. Barry Silbert, a long time fan of Ethereum Classic, has revealed a newly created trust similar to the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT).
The seventh largest market capitalization is still held by Dash, as the cryptocurrency has been on a tear. At press time the fiat value of one Dash is $15, and the market is pushing two million dollars in trades daily.
Maidsafecoin, Augur and once again Steem have held the bottom positions within the top ten market players. Other notable cryptocurrencies performing well this week have been Tether, Factom, and Zcash. The anonymous digital currency Zcash now has 500,000 ZEC available to the public, worth about $40 per token.
