Bitcoin is the second network regarding hashrate growth, only surpassed by Litecoin. According to CoinShares analysts, BTC is the least volatile cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin reached its highest trading volume in June 2019, according to CoinShares. Analysts say that the cryptocurrency ecosystem is going through “a positive period,” which seems to benefit Bitcoin.
The document notes that, during that period, the Bitcoin trading volume also broke an annual record. At that moment, the US, the British Virgin Islands and Luxembourg were the countries with the highest Bitcoin trading volume.
The US market has transacted a total of US $36,000 million in BTC in the last six months. The British Virgin Islands took the second place with US $16,000 million, followed by Luxembourg with over US $11,000 million in BTC. Japan is considered the fourth largest Bitcoin market in US dollars, exchanging a total of US $8.6 billion. South Korea and the United Kingdom take the fifth and sixth places, respectively, according to CoinShares.
The report highlights that the reason for Bitcoin’s bullish rally is the inflow of institutional money. They add that Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple have also grown steadily, in both their markets and their networks, in the last six months.
The volatility of Bitcoin’s price has also improved this year. It is calculated at 0.50, whereas in 2017 the cryptocurrency recorded a volatility of 1. Similarly, the correlation between the Bitcoin and gold markets has increased in recent months, and it is estimated at 0.040 for 2019.
Besides, CoinShare analysts say that Bitcoin is the second blockchain regarding hashrate growth, increasing 48% in recent months. However, Litecoin has surpassed Bitcoin in relation to these figures, reaching a growth of 161% this year.
The Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple Situation
The increase in Litecoin hashrate suggests that new miners have connected to the network in recent months. This proportion is higher than that of Bitcoin, although profitability had not improved until the middle of the year. However, after the second Litecoin halving, the profitability in this network decreased, thus leading to a fall in hashrate.
The report adds that Litecoin’s price began to increase in April 2019, unlike the behavior of ETH and BTC. The cryptocurrency has maintained a stable price in recent months, according to BitInfoCharts. April was also the month with the highest trading volume, with the United States, the British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom being the four countries with the highest LTC trading volume in US dollars.
This market has a volatility of 0.75, which has been decreasing from previous fluctuations in 2017 and 2018. Similarly, the correlation between LTC and gold is 0.019.
On the other hand, Ether has not had an actual bullish market in the last year, despite showing a revaluation of its prices in May. This cryptocurrency, which has a volatility of 0.75, is particularly popular in the United States, the British Virgin Islands and South Korea.
Regarding hashrate, Ethereum is the network that has shown the lowest growth, according to CoinShares. Its hashrate has not grown in 2019, but it has decreased 6% if compared to 2018. There are fewer miners working on this network, a trend that could be a consequence of their probable migration to its new network and the change in the mining protocol.
Ripple, on the other hand, registered the highest trading volume in early May. The cryptocurrency has become popular in the markets of South Korea, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands, moving the United States to the fourth place. CoinShares estimates that the volatility of the XRP is 0.75.
Analysts conclude that the data about the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple networks and markets suggest a slow but steady growth. They also consider that projects like Lightning Network and Ethereum 2.0, as well as Ripple’s partnerships with banks, allow services related to these blockchains to continue growing and specializing.
By Willmen Blanco
