The cryptoeconomy saw a series of stark selloffs across the board in 2018, and general rallies in its markets have been few and far between since then. Accordingly, traders perked up on Monday, February 18th, as the top 25 cryptocurrencies were all in the green on the day, several markedly so.
Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency per market capitalization, seemed to lead the latest buy swell, its price having gained nine percent from $123 USD to $134 on Sunday while most other big-cap and mid-cap cryptocurrencies were still flat. As Monday arrived, the ether price took another 10 percent climb from $134 to a high above $148 while buy pressure began hitting the other top cryptocurrency markets.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose more than seven percent in the rally to reach $3900, a mark that’s within striking distance of the round and psychological $4,000 price point. The move up comes as the genesis cryptocurrency had settled amid sideways chop around $3,500 in recent weeks.
Other popular assets fared just as well on the green day. Ripple’s XRP, Tron (TRX), and stellar lumens (XLM) all gained more than six percent respectively. The biggest rises among the top coins came from EOS (+22 percent), bitcoin cash (+19 percent), litecoin (+12 percent), and Cardano’s ADA (+12 percent). The top privacy coins, Monero and Zcash, each saw their prices rise more than eight percent.
The Times They Are a Changing?
There have been acute daily rallies in the current cryptoeconomy bear market, which earlier this month became the longest in Bitcoin’s history to date. But what’s been lacking in the downturn is consecutive days of upward momentum. The sharp rise of the ether price two days in a row has some traders in the space wondering if the beginning of the end is nigh for the bearish market cycle.
Bullish rumblings this February have price watchers wondering what comes next. On Feb. 8th, cryptocurrency markets saw their last rally with litecoin leading the way atop a 30 percent rise. That surge combined with the latest round of buy pressure may suggest that demand, whether it be retail or institutional demand, is materializing once more around the top digital assets.
Fundstrat, the firm of high-profile Wall Street cryptocurrency analyst Tom Lee, thinks the page will be turning for the ecosystem this year. Fundstrat published its 2019 crypto outlook two weeks ago, and in it the firm projected the bear market would bottom out within the next several months.
“By the end of 2019, we expect prices to be staging a visible recovery,” the outlook said.
Of course, that estimation is a far cry from saying a bull run is imminent, and as always it’s anyone’s guess where cryptocurrency markets go from here, but the firm’s bottom call is another sign that optimism seems to be returning to the space after sentiments turned generally bleak in 2018.
Even a modest recovery throughout the year would be welcomed by cryptocurrency diehards, as it’s now been more than 400 days since bitcoin peaked near $20,000 in December 2017. As such, any steps toward that mark will be championed by proponents in perpetuity. Unless, that is, the bitcoin price ever breaks through $20k again, at which their hopes of a return will have been borne out.
But the cryptoeconomy isn’t out of the wood’s just yet. Concerns about the possibility of a global economic recession still linger around the world stage, and if such a recession were to occur, a de-risking investment atmosphere would reign supreme for the interim. Speculative assets like cryptocurrencies would likely be among the investment instruments hit hardest if global markets go down. For now, the only thing to do is wait and see what happens next.
