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Bitcoin Again Tests $4K Amidst Anticipation of US and China Trade Deal Finalization

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bitcoin Again Tests $4K Amidst Anticipation of US and China Trade Deal Finalization
Tuesday, Feb. 19: crypto markets have continued gaining momentum, with all of the top 20 coins by market cap seeing green and ₿itcoin (BTC) testing $4,000 again, according to CoinMarketCap.

Market visualization from Coin360
Following a slight decline to as low as $3,908 yesterday, ₿itcoin has continued growing towards the new price point, currently trading at $3,941 and up 4.4 percent over the past 24 hours. The biggest cryptocurrency saw a sharp bullish move on Feb. 17 and approached $4,000 yesterday by touching $3,973, the highest price point since Jan. 10. ₿itcoin is up around 9.3 percent over the past 7 days.

bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up about 3.5 percent, approaching $150. Ethereum is seeing large growth over the week, up more than 22 percent since Feb. 12, when the altcoin was trading at around $121.

Ethereum 7-days price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ripple (XRP), the second-top altcoin by market cap, is up about 8.3 percent and is trading at $0.338, which constitutes around 12 percent growth over the past 7 days. Recently, BankDhofar, the second-largest bank by market value in Oman, has started using RippleNet tech for cross-border payments to India.

Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
The fourth-top cryptocurrency by market cap, EOS (EOS), is seeing the biggest growth both over the past 24 hours and 7 days, up more than 15.7 percent over the day and about 30.5 percent over the week.

EOS 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Total market capitalization has surged to $135 billion after having been stuck around $120 billion since Feb. 8. Daily trade volume has continued gaining momentum, currently seeing a slight decline from $36 billion to $35 billion.

Weekly total market capitalization chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Yesterday, Indonesia’s commodity futures regulator adopted a legal framework for operating crypto and digital assets futures markets, officially requiring multiple entities on the market to seek regulatory approval and apply for registration before legally launching businesses in Indonesia.
Also on Feb. 18, prominent ₿itcoin bull and venture capital investor Tim Draper declared that in five years, only criminals will use fiat as crypto becomes universally widespread. Draper also argued that ₿itcoin is more secure than the U.S. dollar, and compared cashing out from BTC with exchanging gold into shells.
Following the long President’s Day weekend in the United States, stock futures were flat to lower on Tuesday as traders waited for new data from the latest round of the U.S.-China trade negotiations, CNBC reports. According to data acquired by CNBC, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 20 points at the open, while NASDAQ and S&P 500 remained flat.
Meanwhile, oil stayed within sight of its 2019 high of almost $67 a barrel on Tuesday, supported by OPEC-led supply cuts although concern about slowing economic growth is expected to curb the demand.
As the U.S. dollar reportedly weakened on anticipation of the U.S. and China trade deal, gold prices increased to the highest level in more than two weeks on Monday, while palladium hit a record high of $1,449. U.S. gold futures increased by 0.3 percent to $1,326.1 an ounce.

Published at Tue, 19 Feb 2019 14:01:00 +0000

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Is Ripple Price Being Fueled by Confused Investors?

Riding the wave of recent positive news for Ripple, the XRP token is roaring with a 200% price surge over the weekend as the cryptocurrency market is reaching higher highs. But is Ripple for real or is it being fueled by confusion among new investors? 


Is Ripple For Real?

Jokes were abound this weekend as the cryptocurrency industry embraced April Fool’s Day in usual fashion. Meanwhile, Ripple experienced a serious surge with its market cap soaring from $360,000 USD to over $2.3 billion.

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The price of Ripple XRP token experienced a whopping seven-fold increase in the past few days, and easily outperformed recent stalwarts such as Dash, Monero and the SegWit hopeful Litecoin in the past week. Even bitcoin, which managed to break the $1,100 barrier on news of becoming a legal form of payment in Japan, could not match yesterday’s 200% rise. 

The rise comes amid news of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ recently joining Ripple’s Interbank Group for Global Payments Based on Distributed Financial Technology.

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“We are pleased to join Ripple’s Global Payments Steering Group,” said Hirofumi Aihara, General Manager, MUFG Digital Innovation Division. “…Collaborating with other members of GPSG, MUFG will contribute to the creation of standards for Ripple’s network.”

Ripple is positioning itself as a cheaper payment network, particularly for large banks and enterprises, with a much higher throughput compared to bitcoin. CEO Brad Garlinghouse explained that Ripple could rival traditional systems such as Visa with nearly 70K transactions in just 3.7 seconds and at a lower cost than bitcoin.

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However, the token might be setting up for a reality check as some believe the price surge has been fueled by a “misunderstanding.” Critics on Bitcointalk.org reacted to the meteoric rise, pointing out that Ripple, the company, is not the same as the XRP token and its Ripple Consensus ledger.

According to Ripple, its Global Payments Steering Group (GSPG) is where “leading banks are working with Ripple to reduce the time and cost of settlement, while also enabling new types of high-volume, low-value global transactions.”

By coming together to form the GSPG, these banks are laying the foundation for a new payments network, underpinned by Ripple’s solutions and supported by rules and governance for global settlement.

In other words, new demand for the XRP token could merely be speculative at this point as banks would be able to bypass transactions on the Ripple Consensus Ledger with their own Ripple-inspired platforms.

The commentator also noted:

Check the volumes, [Poloniex] currently stands for $150M+ volume, RCL only 20. What now is happening is a pump, driven by people misunderstanding the news.

The Rise and Rise of Cryptocurrencies

Overall, April is getting off to a hot start for cryptocurrencies as the total market capitalization is now a record $27 billion. It has been on an uptrend, particularly accelerating as of late following the rejection of the COIN bitcoin ETF in mid-March.

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Though Bitcoin price has remained relatively stable oscillating between $900 and $1,200 amid scaling uncertainty, its overall dominance of the market has seen a huge drop from 84% to 68%.

Nevertheless, while the rejection of the first ever ETF might be seen as a setback for bitcoin to some, the media attention received in the run-up to the decision appears to have attracted new investors to the crypto space as a whole.

What is the real cause for Ripple’s price rise? Is bitcoin waning dominance a temporary phenomenon? Let us know in the comments below!


Images courtesy of coinmarketcap.com, Shutterstock, twitter, MUFG 

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