With 19 days left in the year, the cryptocurrency market continues to struggle through the bear season that has dominated 2018. Some indicators are approaching critical levels and the conditions for a decisive rebound are drawing nearer. This Wednesday saw a modest recovery led by a handful of specific coins. Below we review the main indicators for bitcoin and the altcoins.
$100 Billion: a psychological support level for the global market
The market collapse has shown up across several indicators, not only in price performance but also in the overall size of the sector. One key metric is total market capitalization: the sum of the market caps of every cryptocurrency. This gives a sense of the industry’s overall scale and helps large investors gauge the market’s significance. Global market capitalization has shifted dramatically: in January 2018 bulls were hoping the market would surpass $1 trillion, after a historical high that exceeded $800 billion.
Today the indicator is at its lowest levels since August 2017. A basic look at the chart highlights three key levels for the current outlook. The first is a support level that has clearly been broken, around $123 billion. Should the decline continue, two further supports appear at $95 billion and $65 billion. A drop below $100 billion could play a psychologically negative role in the market and trigger more panic.
Bitcoin dominance: holding strong
Despite the bear market, bitcoin has fared better on at least one performance metric: market dominance, the percentage share of the total market held by each cryptocurrency. BTC has managed to stay near 55% of total capitalization, climbing gradually since May. This suggests investors are choosing to shelter their holdings in bitcoin during the downturn.
Other notable dominance trends include the steep fall of Ethereum (ETH), which held more than 35% of the market in June but now represents less than 9% of the total. Some tokens, such as Stellar (XLM) and Ripple (XRP), have increased their share, with XRP overtaking ETH to become the second-largest by dominance. Bitcoin Cash also lost ground: after its fork it split into Bitcoin SV (BSV), which is currently competing for BCH’s former position.
Market snapshot: a slight recovery on December 12
The market shows some signs of recovery, but there is no evidence yet of a sustained bullish rally or a clear trend reversal. Bitcoin’s price remains stalled near $3,500. At the same time, some coins are showing stronger rebounds: EOS gained more than 10% today, while Litecoin (LTC) rose by almost 6%. Outside the top 10 there are several notable movers:
- Tezos jumped more than 16%. Bulls began buying Tezos again, with the uptick reportedly driven by its recent addition to the Huobi exchange platform.
- Waves recovered as well, up over 25% in the last week. The coin’s renewed visibility has been linked to the project’s expansion, including the launch of a mobile application.
- TenX (PAY) has rebounded sharply, gaining roughly 50% over the past seven days. The team behind the crypto prepaid card—designed to be used like fiat money—announced a restructuring of its roadmap that includes rolling out its Visa card in 2019 and introducing an ERC-20 rewards token for investors.
Below is the Coin360 overview for the last 24 hours:
Will we see a recovery before the new year? Share your thoughts in the comments section.