It’s no secret that cryptocurrencies are now more popular than ever. Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic started, the price of Bitcoin and other altcoins started increasing.
Whenever there’s a crisis, people are looking for a way to store their wealth securely. Before BTC was invented, the main thing people invested in was gold.
However, things are looking a bit different now as gold has one great competitor — “digital gold.”
Apart from Bitcoin, there are many other cryptos that people invest in. Still, none of them came as close to popularity as BTC. The main pretender to the BTC’s throne is Ethereum, which is currently considered the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world.
In this article, we’ll make a short technical overview of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar Lumens, as some of the cryptocurrencies that have become quite popular recently.
Bitcoin:
It’s safe to say that Bitcoin has never been more popular, as its price skyrocketed in the last couple of months. But before we comment on the most recent activity, let’s take a short overview of the first peak in its history.
Bitcoin’s first price record happened in December 2017, when the rate reached almost $20K per one BTC. It was the first time BTC entered the mainstream, and all people around the world realized its potential.
However, after that, the price of digital gold started going down, settling at almost $3,000 a year after the first peak. Many people lost hope, but some realized it was the right time to start buying the popular cryptocurrency.
The price started gradually increasing throughout 2019. It went to more than $11,000 only to drop to about $5,000 in March 2020. It was when the first lockdowns started happening due to the coronavirus pandemic. But it was also the time when the price began to increase again. It started shy in the first couple of months and exploded in January and February of 2021. The current price of a single unit of BTC is around $48K.
Another great reason why BTC started going up is that the big guys entered the game. In other words, companies and rich individuals, such as Elon Musk, started getting BTC and storing their wealth in crypto. This was a reason good enough for people to consider buying some Bitcoin themselves.
The 90-day low for BTC at this moment was about $17K, whereas the 90-day high was $58K, which also happens to be the all-time high amount for this cryptocurrency. If we consider the official all-time low registered on CoinMarketCap, which is $65 per one unit of BTC, we could see that ROI for people who bought BTC in 2013 would now be 37708.89%. The current market cap of BTC is almost $952 billion now.
It’s difficult to predict the future of BTC, but from what we’ve seen so far, the price has been following an upwards trend for a while. This tendency will also affect many other cryptocurrencies, as people have been using BTC for trading altcoins to make a profit.
Ethereum:
Ethereum’s current market cap is $184.6 billion. It also had its first peak three years ago, in January 2018, when the price reached more than $1,300. The current ETH price is similar — approximately $1,500. On the other hand, the trading volume has never been higher, and Ethereum reached its all-time high recently, which was $2,036.
The price of this cryptocurrency is also likely to rise in the future, but it will follow BTC’s trend, as it has been all along. For example, its price also jumped in the last three months. ETH’s 90-day low was $533, and the 90-day high — $2,036. Although it didn’t skyrocket as much as BTC, it’s definitely on its way to do so.
Apart from storing Ethereum, you can use it in other ways. For instance, you can conveniently trade ETH to XLM and vice versa when the time is right and get the most out of it.
Stellar Lumens:
Stellar Lumens (XLM) is another popular cryptocurrency that has been traded a lot lately. The main difference between XLM and the two cryptos we have covered above is that XLM’s maximum supply is much higher. The total amount of XLM to be issued will be 50 billion. Bitcoin’s total supply is 21 million BTC, and ETH’s annual supply is limited to 18 million (it doesn’t have a maximum supply limit, but it’s very limited).
The current market cap is about $9 billion, with the fully diluted cap being projected to $21.4 billion at this moment. Right now, approximately 22 billion XLM are circulating in the market.
XLM’s all-time high was $0.9, which was reached on January 4, 2018. The official registered all-time low was $0.001227 in 2014.
The cryptocurrency’s 90-day high was $0.6, and 90-day low $0.11. In other words, the price increase is visible, although XLM failed to overtake its former record, as opposed to ETH and BTC.
Final Thoughts:
It’s difficult to predict the prices of cryptocurrencies, as there are no official rules for price changes. Therefore, if you want to trade BTC, ETH, or XLM, make sure to follow the latest news in the world, read forums, and see what successful investors are doing. This will help you get the most from your trading venture.
