Yahoo Finance Ethereum Leads the Way in the Face of South Korean Adversity
It was a tough start to the week for Bitcoin, which stumbled from a weekend high $17,234.99 to an intraday low $13,900 before recovering to close the day at 15,179.68 on Monday.
We’ve talked about regulatory risk being the key driver for the markets, following the impact of South Korean government chatter on the cryptocurrencies late last year.
Monday was no different and the effects were certainly evident, with losses seen across the board, with one exception, Ethereum that has appeared to shift a gear through the first week of the year and manage to hold on to $1,000 levels whilst those around sit well below record highs.
At the time of writing, Ethereum was up 6.41% to $1,209.92, with the doom and gloom of yesterday’s news seemingly having little long-term effect on appetite for a currency that had given up the number 2 spot, albeit for a very short period of time.
Perhaps good news for investors this morning has been a bounce back by the Bitcoin clan, with Bitcoin up 1.37% to $15,204.98 at the time of writing, recovering from an intraday low $14,816.87 hit earlier in the day.
We will expect Bitcoin to be the market’s litmus test for risk appetite this week as investors grapple with the South Korean government’s chatter on regulation, with the markets likely to have been a little too sensitive to the comments.
Even for cryptocurrencies where South Korean investors account for the largest trading volumes, such as Zcash, there has been on the bounce this morning, which supports the view that the currencies may have been oversold on Monday.
Volatility is certainly significantly greater than the more traditional asset classes and with it, the bad news swings continue to be more significant.
Monday’s declines looks to have provided investor opportunity rather than deliver a more significant blow to the markets, though it remains too early to say what the eventual outcome of all of the increased oversight will be and what effect they will have on overall volumes.
Barring any further negative chatter, the currencies are likely to remain in recovery mode, while Ethereum rallies in what has been an impressive response to Ripple’s challenge.
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This morning’s Bitcoin recovery that has provided much needed support to the broader market, comes off the back of a rebound in the futures market.
The Cboe futures contract for January had hit an intraday low of $14,560, before recovering to $15,040 at the time of writing. In contrast to the January contract gains through the early part of the day, both February and March expiries on the Cboe futures exchange were in the red at the time of writing, with February’s contract down $70 to $14,900.
The ranges are particularly narrow in spite of the degree of uncertainty that has pressured the cryptomarkets this week and that should be considered a positive.
Whether Bitcoin can find its legs through the remainder of the day remains to be seen, but one thing looks certain and that is Ethereum staying on the front foot, as it continues to fight off the competition and defy gravity.
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This article was originally posted on FX Empire
