The cryptocurrency market is no stranger to fluctuations in value over a whim, a half-baked rumor or even an unfounded speculation. The community is neither surprised by the drastic changes and drops their assets take and neither do they expect anything different.
However, with us beginning the 8th month of the year, the cryptocurrency market this year has been extremely unpredictable with previously deemed ‘stable’ coins losing more than 60% of its market value between the beginning of January and the last week of July.
The market this year, started in a relatively strong position with the after-effects of the bitcoin bull still wavering the coin trends on the higher side. But since, the market has plummeted to the ground, made a semi-recovery and plummeted again.
The performance of cryptos in the first half of 2018
Let’s deal with the bad news before the good. Let’s look at the worst performing coins of 2018 and how the mighty have fallen since their initial values at the beginning of January. Before going into the specifics of which coins performed particularly terribly in this time period, here is a look at the first coin ranking list that was released by coinmarketcap back in Jan and the one that it was in the last week of July.
Jan 7, 2018 Top Ten
July 22, 2018 Top Ten
For starters, from the two rankings it is obvious that the first four coins; Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Bitcoin Cash have managed to keep their position in the top four in spite of facing major losses over the past six months.
The Top Four
The month of January saw all the cryptocurrencies in the afterglow of the Bitcoin bull of December when the price of Bitcoin touched its highest ever at $19,528.93 USD. however, as the market settled into the new year, the unprecedented inflation of the Bitcoin started to water back down and along with it the other cryptocurrencies also started to lose market value.
Apart from Ripple’s brief takeover of Ethereum’s second place in the coinmarketcap’s rankings, in January, the top four coins have remained pretty much the same and in the same positions, throughout the first six months of this year. The largest loss that was faced by the top four also, incidentally, happens to have also happened to Ripple, with a loss of almost 86% from its initial value this year.
Despite the large amount of loss all the coins have faced in their own face, the top four cryptocurrencies remain still, comparatively, the most ‘stable’, the most expensive and the safest investments.
The Best Performing Coins
All the coins in the cryptocurrency market are currently and historically, facing losses from their all time highs in December, regardless of which there are a lot of coins that have performed better than expected.
In the list of the best performing coins of the cryptocurrency market are; Paccoin, Hexx, Ontology, Mithril and Casinocoin.
The Worst Performing Coins
Post the bitcoin bull a lot of coins that held a lot of promise saw almost a 100% loss in their market value. Some of them were even very highly supported bitcoin forks that the community saw.
The losses that these coins have incurred are almost 100% in all five cases.
The Market Now
The cryptocurrency market right is, as we’ve seen before, is no stranger to uncertainty and fluctuation. However, the last couple of weeks, there has been a trend towards the positive. With bitcoin breaking the $8,000 barrier, the community is abuzz with a lot of news about the market preparing itself for the next bitcoin bull.
A lot of comparisons are being drawn between this year’s trends and last year this time and everyone is convinced that the market is on an upward trend. But what happens in the next six months is going to be what determines whether it is on its way or not to yet another bull.
Also, read: Top 10 Altcoins to buy in August
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