Unfortunately for cryptocurrency traders, the bitcoin (BTC) price continued its disappointing run over the weekend.
At the time of writing the bitcoin price is fetching US$13,590 per coin according to Coin Market Cap, down 5.4% over the last 24 hours. This has reduced its market capitalisation to just under US$229 billion.
But bitcoin wasn’t the only cryptocurrency sinking into the red. The second-largest crypto ethereum posted an even heavier decline over the last 24 hours.
The ethereum price fell 6.2% to US$1,330, meaning it has a market capitalisation of US$129 billion.
The worst performer of the most popular cryptos was, however, Ripple’s XRP with a decline of 8.3% to US$1.84.
This leaves XRP’s market capitalisation at approximately US$71 billion, down by over 52% from its peak of US$148 billion earlier this month.
Why are cryptocurrencies sinking lower?
There appears to be countless reasons why bitcoin and its fellow cryptocurrencies are sinking lower.
These include fears that the “bubble” is bursting, government crackdowns on crypto trading, and, in the case of bitcoin, concerns over its archaic technology.
Many had hoped that bitcoin would one day become a currency in its own right. But it looks less likely by the day due its shortcomings, namely its processing times.
An example of the issues it is facing would be the Miami Bitcoin Conference’s decision to stop accepting bitcoin as a payment method due to fees and congestion.
It is because of this that I believe increasingly popular cryptos like Ripple’s XRP and Stellar Lumens (XLM) have a chance of becoming the number one cryptocurrency in the future.
However, it is difficult to know whether this will be because their prices rise significantly, or whether it is by virtue of the bitcoin price collapsing.
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