This week has been interesting has been full of surprises to say the least. From January 13th to January 15th Bitcoin dropped from a weight priced of 264.35 on Bitstamp to a weighted price of 178.83 exactly 48 hours later. Equivalent to around a 32.4% drop in price in only just two days, it was a reminder that Bitcoin is still a young and volatile currency.
Bitcoin Analysis
While the price has gone back up a little bit (price of Bitcoin is at $210.58), Bitcoin is still down 22.21% this week, as of January 18th. Most if not all cryptocurrencies went down with the main exception being Nushares, which is up 31.82% this week.
Altcoin Analysis
Emercoin is up 134.44%, and FoldingCoin is up 91.94 this week but with such a low volume of less than $300 combined I’d chalk it up to market manipulation. Gamerscoin is up 567% this week but with a 5k volume and lower market cap, it may be something for more experienced traders to handle.
Ripple has finally come down, the current price of $0.015 per Ripple, down from the $0.025 price was enjoying for a while. Bitcoins network effect does affect all other cryptocurrencies because exchanges usually have the trading pairs to be set up against Bitcoin or a fiat currency.
This means indirectly all cryptocurrencies are linked to Bitcoin, meaning that while an individual altcoins fluctuation will not affect Bitcoin, any variations in Bitcoin, especially big ones, will most definitely affect altcoins.
Paycoin is still decreasing with an additional 34.60% decrease this week. With the approval from the community souring with every day the confidence in Paycoin is also price seems to be going as well. With the promised acceptance from Walmart, Target, and Amazon not here, as well as the lacking $20 floor, people are losing faith.
Litecoin has also been decreasing steadily, but decreasing has slowed down. This week alone it has decreased 15%, which could be combination of LTCGear having problems with payout on top of the steady stream of downward pressure. With most coins struggling just to keep current price with miners dumping, any bad news can influence the price of a coin dramatically.
Final Notes
With the Miami Conference recently over and Ross’s trials starting recently, this week in Bitcoin has been filled with events both news and price wise. The price does look like its recovering, but we are still a long ways from $250 or even $300. I expect Bitcoin over the long term of this year to fall some more, maybe even below $100.
Once Bitcoin falls all the way to the bottom, there’s no way but up.
What do you guys think? What’s your outlook on this year in Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments!
Photo Source: Bitcoin Charts