After rallying to record-setting prices, recapturing the attention of the public and becoming once-again the topic du jour, cryptocurrencies are losing ground today.
Bitcoin, the best-known cryptocurrency, peaked at more than $41,000 apiece on January 8. Today after shedding a little over 23% in the last 24 hours, one bitcoin is now worth around $31,800.
Similarly, ether, the token associated with the Ethereum blockchain, peaked at a little over $1,300 on January 10. Today, after losing an even sharper 29% in the last 24 hours, ether tokens are worth around $960 apiece.
Coins remain far above recent prices, with bitcoin setting new all-time highs this month and ether nearly reaching its early 2018 all-time highs. CoinMarketCap, a data platform tracking the cryptocurrency market that was purchased by the Binance exchange in 2020, reports that the value of all cryptocurrencies has fallen by just over 22% in the last day to $832.4 billion.
Whether the recent declines, or the fact that cryptos were very recently worth north of $1 trillion in aggregate is bigger news will be determined by your perspective on the asset class.
For startups focused on the digital token market, however, it’s been a heady start to the year. Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency exchange, filed to go public in late 2020. The recent rally in the price of bitcoin, for example, has led to record trading volumes for the coin. That could translate into lucrative incomes for Coinbase and its rivals.
If so, the venture capital market could warm to companies in the space, opening wallets to crypto projects that may have been closed since 2017.