Cryptocurrencies have become a global phenomenon known to most people. It is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.Cryptocurrencies make it easier to conduct any transactions, for transfers are simplified through use of public and private keys for security and privacy purposes. These transfers can be done with minimal processing fees, allowing users to avoid the steep fees charged by traditional financial institutions.
Following a steady and solid break above the $7,400 mark earlier today, bitcoin (BTC) has broken $8,000, with all top-20 cryptocurrencies, which are; ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, EOS, BNB, USDT, XLM, ADA, TRX, XMR, DASH, BSV, MIOTA, XTZ, ATOM, NEO, ETC and such currencies.
Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks thus managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by a network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part! Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows widespread uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system over the years.
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $8,013 currently, up over 13%. Bitcoin’s weekly gains are now at around 38.88%. Ethereum (ETH) has seen an increase of 7.57% in the last 24 hours. Thus the second largest cryptocurrency is trading at $212.65 at this time. The altcoin’s weekly chart shows gains of over 15%. Ripple (XRP) has slightly less significant daily gains, up 5.16% on the day to trade around $0.327 at press time. On the week, XRP is up by modest 7.94%.
Apart from bitcoin, bitcoin cash (BCH), binance coin (BNB), IOTA (MIOTA), Tezos (XTZ), and Ontology (ONT) have also reported double-digit gains, from 10% to 17%, according to CoinMarketCap.
Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $234 billion at press time –– up from around $209 billion.
However, contrary to digital asset markets, stocks dropped after China decided to raise their tariffs on some of the United States goods, CNBC reported today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 617.38 points, or 2.4%, to 25,324.99, marking its worst session since Jan. 3. The S&P 500 also fell 2.4% to 2,811.87, while The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.4%, which is reportedly its largest one-day loss of the year, to 7,647.02.
Oil futures have also reported losses today, with Brent crude futures down 42 cents at $70.20 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures down 1%, or 62 cents, at $61.04.
