Oh, bitcoin… Why must you always put us through this? At press time, the asset has fallen back down into the $7,000 range. Granted the price is still in the higher section – $7,960 – but it’s still a significant drop from yesterday, when bitcoin was trading for around $8,100.
Bitcoin Is Once Again Falling from Grace
What this tells us is that the currency, despite all its past resilience, is unable to maintain the momentum it briefly had following the cryptocurrency bloodbath of late September. At that time, virtually every currency fell into a red zone, and bitcoin itself was arguably the biggest loser, dropping more than $1,000 from its price in a matter of minutes.
While BTC has managed to incur small gains here and there, it hasn’t shown the same strength and stamina as its altcoin cousins. While they’ve all fallen somewhat since that time, many of the top 20 currencies have, for the most part, garnered significant growth. Ethereum is now trading in the low $180 range when it fell to $157 at the time of the drop, while EOS ultimately rose over $3 at one point (it’s now trading for about $2.93) and Ripple’s XRP later rose from about 23 cents to 29 cents.
In other words, the strength this time around belongs to smaller coins. Bitcoin, in the end, has stayed exactly where it was.
As it stands, the “bearish mood” surrounding bitcoin right now is the strongest it’s been since February. Even with the revival of Bakkt and institutional trading as we know it, the currency is still weak. Bakkt did premiere to some rather lackluster reception when it first emerged on September 23. It is likely the culprit behind bitcoin’s sudden fall, but reports have emerged claiming that Bakkt is trading relatively high numbers of futures contracts, now. The platform has revived itself, so why can’t bitcoin?
One source makes the claim that BTC, at this stage, has become something of a “big kid” in a maturing industry. Bitcoin is the granddaddy of crypto; there’s no denying its size and age, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best anymore. Many altcoins have emerged since bitcoin debuted with stronger and better technology. They can move faster, they can host more applications, and even pave the way for further tokens like Ethereum.
Other Coins Are Beating It
All bitcoin has really produced is bitcoin cash, which at press time is also trading at historic lows. Bitcoin cash then produced bitcoin SV, which to this day has proven to be a very controversial unit in the crypto space and is often blamed for bitcoin’s sudden fall in late 2018.
Either way, if bitcoin is going to maintain its position in the industry, it’s going to need to learn to mature the way its altcoin cousins have.
