Wednesday, May 15 — All of the top 20 coins are in the green after seeing some losses over the past day, with some reporting double-digit gains, according to Coin360.
Market visualization by Coin360
The leading digital currency bitcoin (BTC) is up over 4% on the day, trading at $8,135 at press time after reaching above $8,200. Earlier today, bitcoin dropped under the $8,000 price point to trade as low as $7,807. On its weekly chart, bitcoin saw its lowest price point at $5,942 on May 8, while its highest price point was $8,265 on May 14.
Today, Erik Voorhees, CEO of instant cryptocurrency exchange platform ShapeShift, argued that the volatility seen in bitcoin and altcoin markets over the years is a necessary phenomenon for a nascent asset, stating that bubbles are an essential part of the industry’s growth.
Bitcoin 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
The second largest coin by market capitalization, ether (ETH), has nearly 15% growth in the last 24 hours, and is trading at around $237 at press time. During the week, ETH has been steadily gaining in price, and is currently up 39% over the last seven days.
Ether 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ripple (XRP) has gained almost 9.59% on the day, and is trading at $0.432 at press time. The altcoin started the day near $0.399, gradually reaching the current price point. Over the week, the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap registered its lowest price point at $0.294 on May 10 and hit the highest value of around $0.438 earlier today.
Ripple 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin cash (BCH) — which went through a planned hard fork update earlier today — is trading at $393.76 at press time, up by 4.94% over the past day.
Following the coin’s hard fork, BitMEX reported that the bitcoin cash network experienced difficulties processing transactions.
Bitcoin cash 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Total market capitalization of all digital currencies is around $250.4 billion at press time, having started the day at around $231 billion.
Total market capitalization 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
As CNBC reported earlier today, spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,298.26 per ounce, having hit its highest level since April 11 at $1,303.26 on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures settled $1.50 higher at $1,297.80.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reportedly closed up 115.97 points at 25,648.02 after falling as much as 190 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 gained 0.6% to end the day at 2,850.96 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1% to 7,822.15.