Crypto Markets Mellow After a Surge of Growth, Stock Market Slightly Down

Wednesday, March 6 — after a surge of growth earlier today, most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies have stabilized and are reporting slight to noteworthy gains on the day by press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering near the $3,900 mark again, according to Coin360 data.

Market visualization from Coin360

At press time, Bitcoin is up just under one percent on the day, trading at around $3,903, according to CoinMarketCap data. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is about one percent higher than $3,858, the price at which Bitcoin started the week.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Recently news broke that Bitcoin’s mining revenues have begun climbing after falling to their lowest levels in 18 months.

Ethereum (ETH) is holding onto its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which is at about $14.6 billion. The second-largest altcoin, Ripple (XRP), has a market cap of about $13.2 billion.

ETH is up by almost three percent over the last 24 hours. At press time, ETH is trading around $139, after having started the day at $135. On its weekly chart, Ethereum has seen almost no overall change, falling as low as $125. 80 on Monday.

Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Ethereum client Parity’s CEO, Jutta Steiner, has said that the new controversial Create2 Ethereum function would have prevented the Parity multisig freeze.

Second-largest altcoin Ripple has gained about 1.3 percent in the 24 hours to press time and is currently trading at around $0.318. Looking at the coin’s weekly chart, its current price is just  fraction of a percent higher than the price at which it started the week.

Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies, the ones experiencing most notable growth are Litecoin (LTC), which is up about five percent, and Binance Coin (BNB), which is up over four percent.

The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is pushing $133 billion today, after dropping to as low as $125 billion earlier this year.

In industry news, a new report from United States-based market research firm International Data Corporation revealed that global blockchain spending will account for almost $2.9 billion in 2019, which is an 88.7 percent increase from 2018.

In traditional markets, the stock market is seeing slight downward movement so far today, with the S&P 500 down 0.44 percent and Nasdaq down 0.59 percent.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), on the other hand, has gained a solid 6.51 percent on the day at press time.

Earlier today, CNBC reported that the stock market was seeing stagnancy at open, pointing to the fact that investors are waiting for information on a potential trade deal between the U.S. and China.

Major oil futures and indexes are in the red, with WTI Crude down 1.63 percent, Brent Crude down 0.68 percent and Mars US down 0.21 percent. Opec Basket is also down 0.7 percent and the Canadian Crude Index has seen its value decrease by 1.76 percent, according to OilPrices.