Bitcoin (BTC) once again felt the pinch as the globe's most talked-about crypto succumbed to external pressures and retreated nearly 10 pct lower at $10,390, Friday, Coin360 bared. Unsurprisingly, this dragged the other major digital assets as well into the red zone.
Based on latest chart movements, Ether (ETH) has shed its recent gains by almost 14% and currently trades at $233, despite clinging to its spot with $24.9 billion market cap, the largest in its category. ETH has likewise lost about 20 pct of its market value just days ago.
Ripple's XRP, on the other hand, fell back almost 10 pct as of the weekend and currently trades around $0.304. The second-largest altcoin in the market, XRP has a market cap of $12.9 billion as of this writing.
The Trump Effect
Bitcoin's latest slump follows U.S. President Donald Trump's censure of the virtual currency on social media late last week. BTC made a quick dive, after it initially rose nearly 7% on Friday, and on Twitter, Trump said he is "not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air."
Citing issues about the crypto's usage in illicit activities online, Trump also said that decentralized electronic money "can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity." He also took a jab at Libra, Facebook's own digital currency set to launch next year.
According to Canada-based Oanda Corp. senior finance analyst Alfonso Esperanza, Trump's disapproval of Bitcoin has put downward pressure on the crypto and could make it slide closer to the $8,000 mark, a threshold some virtual money pundits believe is not far-fetched.
Decent Performance
So far, BTC has rallied impressively during the past weeks, bolstered by some of the largest tech firms that showed a huge interest in the promise it holds despite the unclear notion that bureaucratic demand for digital assets is here and will outpace retail demand.
Meanwhile, other key coins also posted double-digit declines, with Bitcoin SV (BSV) falling 15.60 pct, as NEO plunges more than 15 pct. The total market cap of all digital assets stands at $305 billion.
