Market wrap: What happened with the top-5 cryptocurrencies this week (26-Nov-2021 to 3-Dec-2021)
Bitcoin
Bitcoin hit as low as US$53,827 on Saturday 27th Nov with the WHO announcing the “Omicron” COVID-19 variant as a “variant of concern” causing a sell-off across all asset classes. The Biden Administration’s tax-reporting requirements for digital currencies, China’s new restrictions on crypto, and India’s potential law banning most private cryptocurrencies caused uncertainty with traders on their future reporting requirements, leaving more reasons to sell.
Bitcoin bounced back to a high of US$58,778 on Tuesday 30th Nov with Canadian outfit, Purpose Investments, launching a first of its kind Bitcoin ETF which pays investors a monthly yield. Bullish traders also likely “bought the dip” as health officials provided more certainty on restrictions to the Omicron variant, stating that infection symptoms we’re “mild”.
Ethereum
Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum saw a downtrend after the market reacted to the news of the new COVID-19 variant and the various regulatory changes. Ethereum hit a low of US$4,021 on the 26th Nov from a price of US$4,525 less than 12 hours earlier.
It’s since bounced back with a high this week of US$4,770 on Wednesday, 1st December, with traders having more confidence in the market. Purpose Investments, the Canadian company mentioned earlier, also launched an Ethereum ETF alongside its Bitcoin ETF offering.
Binance Coin
“When Bitcoin sneezes, crypto catches a cold”, so the saying goes. Binance Coin fell by US$86 in five hours to US$568 on Friday 26th Nov.
On Tuesday 30th Nov, Binance posted an update that it had fixed an issue with its DOGE wallet upgrade. Binance users were unable to withdraw Dogecoin for 17 days prior, causing some back-and-forth tweets between Elon Musk and Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao. After the fix, Binance Coin climbed to a top for the week of US$647 on Thursday 2nd Dec.
Solana
Solana is a coin which has rocketed into the number 5 spot for market cap this year, starting the year trading at around US$1.50, it saw a low this week of US$185 on Monday 29th Nov.
In an exclusive to Forbes on Tuesday 30th Nov, Grayscale Investments, a digital asset investment firm, revealed that it is launching a Solana Trust to provide its clients with exposure to the asset. Solana’s price hit a high for the week this morning, Friday 3rd Dec 9am AEST, reaching US$241.
Cardano
Cardano has a similar story to Solana, starting the year trading around US20¢, it hit an all-time high of US$3 in September, ranking it as the 3rd largest crypto at the time. Its low this week was US$1.45 on Monday 29th Nov, and it currently sits at number 6 in market cap behind Solana.
As Reddit user Jem_colley pointed out in a post on Wednesday 1st Dec, Cardano surpassed the 20 million transaction count without a single day of downtime in four years. It reached a high this week of US$1.74 this morning at 6am AEST, Friday, 3rd Dec.
