A Look At the Performance of the Top Cryptocurrencies In the First-Half of 2020

[BradSow]

The first of 2020 has been roller-coaster ride for Bitcoin and the overall cryptocurrency market. The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic world-wide has the dynamics of global economics as well as for the crypto markets.

Besides, we also have some important events from the crypto space like the Bitcoin halving in May 2020 and the accelerated development of ETH 2.0. Let’s take a look into the performance of Bitcoin and other top-five altcoins in the crypto market.

 

Bitcoin Performance in First-Half of 2020

2020 started on a pretty good note for the Bitcoin investors as the BTC price appreciated over 40% just in the first 45 days of the year. Bitcoin went all the way from $7000 to over $10,000 by mid-February.

However, Bitcoin couldn’t cross its major resistance at $10,500 levels and soon after the outbreak of COVID-19, BTC price plunged more than 50% from its 2020-high to go below $5000 levels just in a month’s time by mid-March 2020.

If we look at the BTC year-to-date chart, BTC’s performance has been very similar to the traditional stock markets. BTC’s price collapse is in tune with the global market collapse in March 2020. Thus, Bitcoin failed to live to its image of being the ‘Digital Gold’ and a safe haven for traditional market investors.

On the other hand, the price of physical Gold continued to rise with the global markets plunging. Soon after this price crash, Bitcoin investors yet again started accumulating the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

But investors’ hopes remain up and alive for the Bitcoin halving event in May 2020. Investors once again started accumulating BTC and BTC price started. Just before the scheduled Bitcoin halving data of May 11, BTC price touched $10,000 surging 100% from its 2020-low.

Pots the Bitcoin halving, Bitcoin price has remained volatile moving back-and-forth in the range of $8800 (support) and $10,500 (resistance).

If we compare the year-to-date graphs for Bitcoin and the overall cryptocurrency market, they are largely identical showing that BTC still decides the over crypto market momentum single-handedly.

Currently, BTC is trading at 30% year-to-date premium around $9200 levels.

 

A Look At the Altcoin Performance

The world’s second largest cryptocurrency and the most popular altcoin - Ethereum - has remained on investors’ radar for 2020. The Ethereum community has been eagerly waiting for the launch of Ethereum 2.0.

As Ethereum prepares to move from the PoW to the more efficient PoS consensus model, investors are accumulating ETH to participate in the staking process in Ethereum 2.0. In ETH 2.0 investors need to have a minimum of 32 ETH to participate in staking.

Of lately, developments with respect to ETH 2.0 have been in an accelerated mode. Last week, blockchain engineering firm ConsenSys announced its Codefi staking platform to offer institutional-grade, exchanges, and wallets, its ETH 2.0 staking as a service.

Ethereum has been one of the best performing altcoin trading at 80% premium year-to-date. At press time, Ethereum is trading at $228 with a market cap of $25 billion.

Stablecoin Tether (USDT) has managed to climb up the ranks and is currently the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Thanks to the poor performance of other altcoins like XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).

One altcoin which has turned very popular and given massive returns is Chainlink (LINK). The price of LINK cryptocurrency has surged over 3000% year-to-date. Chainlink is an oracle service provider which helps to transfer off chain data to other blockchain networks. Recently, Chainlink partnered with China’s Blockchain Services Network (BSN) to transfer real-word data using the interchain service hub IRITA.

Source: WorldCoinIndex