Ripple rout
At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Ripple had been a popular cryptocurrency and touched a high mark of $3.84 on January 4. After that peak, its movement decelerated. Ripple fell ~50.0% in January, and it has fallen another 30.0% in February so far. At 6:00 AM EST on February 5, it was trading at $0.785.
Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, noted during an interview that Ripple’s strength over bitcoin includes its rapid settlement time of three seconds. However, Ripple is facing challenges by an ongoing court case with the R3 banking consortium.
However, many market participants maintain an optimistic outlook for Ripple, as it has arrangements with other financial giants.
Top losers and gainers
The only two cryptocurrencies that gained on February 4 were Bitcore and Tether, which rose 5.1% and 1.5%, respectively. Among the day’s top losers, Nano, DigixDAO, Populous, and BitShares fell 24.7%, 24.6%, 24.0%, and 21.5%, respectively.
However, the weekend was good for most top cryptocurrencies, as they surged on Saturday, February 2, and displayed some signs of recovery. The cryptocurrency market lost more than $150.0 billion from its market cap during the most recent week.
The cryptocurrency market has faced headwinds from governments like South Korea and India, which are discouraging the use of and investment in cryptos