Nano Goes Giga in Down Week for Crypto Prices

Having struggled to find acceptance above the $500 billion mark, the total value of all cryptocurrencies is set to end the week at a moderate loss.

The figure hit a low of $422 billion Friday as bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell to an eight-day low of $9,593.

Meanwhile, the total market capitalization stands at $445 billion – still down 8.26 percent from last Friday’s high of $485 billion. Further, the total value has dropped 14.32 percent from the weekly high of $519.42 billion (seen on Feb. 18).

Out of the top 25 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, the majority are reporting losses on a weekly basis. That said, small caps like nano, ethereum classic and vechain have managed to etch out gains.

Top performers

Nano

Weekly performance: +9.02 percent
All-time high: $34.40
Closing price on Feb. 16: $9.64
Current market price: $10.51
Rank as per market capitalization: 23

Nano (formerly known as raiblocks) is a bitcoin competitor claiming infinite scalability and no fees. The cryptocurrency clocked a 10-day high of 0.00010955 BTC today. Nano wallet for Android went live in beta this week, although it’s unclear if the news has driven prices higher.

Ethereum classic

Weekly performance: +6.88 percent
All-time high: $47.70
Closing price on Feb. 16: $35.03
Current market price: $37.44
Rank as per market capitalization: 14

ETC, the native currency of the ethereum classic blockchain, rose to $42.85 on Bitfinex earlier this week – its highest level since Jan. 15. The cryptocurrency fell to $29.95 yesterday, amid a general market drop. However, the dip was short-lived, and ETC has appreciated by more than 10 percent in the last 24 hours.

An ethereum classic hard fork called “callisto” (CLO) is reportedly due next week and holders of ETC at the time of the fork will receive CLO coins at a ratio of 1:1.

Thus, the lure of making free money just by keeping the cryptocurrency in a blockchain wallet could keep it solidly bid in coming days.

Vechain

Weekly performance: +2.64 percent
All-time high: $9.45
Closing price on Feb. 16: $5.69
Current market price: $5.84
Rank as per market capitalization: 15

Vechain’s VEN token is the third biggest gainer among the top 25 cryptocurrencies for the second week. It was also the best performing cryptocurrency in January.

A look at the VEN/BTC chart shows, the cryptocurrency is beginning to capitalize on the bull flag breakout witnessed on Feb. 15.

Bottom performers

Lisk

Weekly performance: -30.52 percent
All-time high: $39.30
Closing price on Feb. 16: $32.01
Current market price: $22.24
Rank as per market capitalization: 17

Lisk (LSK) topped out at $33.79 on Feb. 17, according to Bittrex, and fell sharply after the team behind the blockchain relaunched the project on Feb. 20.

The cryptocurrency had rallied sharply in the run-up to the relaunch date, and the losses may be merely part of the wider market dip.

Bittrex data shows the cryptocurrency is currently trapped between the 50-day moving average ($24.89) and the 100-day moving average ($18.96).

NEM

Weekly performance: -23.12 percent
All-time high: $2.09
Closing price on Feb. 16: $0.568887
Current market price: $0.437345
Rank as per market capitalization: 13

NEM’s XEM token is trading below the 200-day moving average on Bittrex and ranks second on the list of losers among the top 25 cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrency was also the second biggest loser last week.

And this might be no surprise given the news narrative, it was notably involved in a theft when hackers stole over $500 million-worth of the digital asset from Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck, though prices suffered little as a result.

Since then, it’s even been rumored to be the underlying platform for Venezuela’s new cryptocurrency, the Petro, though this, too, has done little to boost the markets.

Tron

Weekly performance: -18.02 percent
All-time high: $0.30
Closing price on Feb. 16: $0.052449
Current market price: $0.042997
Rank as per market capitalization: 16

Coming bottom in the top 25 this week is tron, which registered an 18 percent drop.

As of writing, though, Tron (TRX) is up 4 percent against the US dollar and the hourly chart (prices via Bittrex) shows the bullish price-relative strength index (RSI) divergence is behind the recovery from the weekly low of $0.03825.

Price data correct as of 13:00 UTC.

Hot-air balloons image via Shutterstock