The month of June was a rollercoaster for Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin’s price volatility weighed in on other altcoins as a result of its market dominance.
The cryptocurrency market capitalization in June started the month with approximately $1.6 trillion, with the market going as low as $1.15 trillion on the 22nd of June. The market however closed the month with a market capitalization of approximately $1.4 trillion, representing a 12.5% decline.
Recap of June 2021
News surrounding the Chinese government, taking very stringent steps in banning cryptocurrency-related transactions and cryptocurrency mining was a major contributor to the market decline.
In their latest attempt to stop all cryptocurrency-related transactions, miners in Ya’an, one of the major crypto mining hubs in China’s Sichuan province, received an inspection notice that required shut-downs. This caused the hashrate of Bitcoin, which represents the blockchain network integrity of the token, to drop to an 8-month low.
Another reason for the decline during the month is the “Death Cross” scare. The death cross is defined by a cross of the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) below the 200-day EMA. This caused investors to panic and sell their holdings.
The news surrounding the death cross caused Bitcoin to fall below $30,000. Not only that, Bitcoin for the first time this year posted negative returns after it traded as low as $28,800.
Having mentioned these factors, here are some cryptocurrencies to look out for in July.
Bitcoin
In June, Bitcoin traded between the $30,000 and $40,000 range. The market has been deciding what direction to go but so far, has not done so. Towards the end of the month, the token traded as low as $28,800, a price point that represented negative returns for the year.
Investors need to watch Bitcoin closely as it determines the performance of all other altcoins because of its market dominance. As of now, Bitcoin’s market dominance is 45.4% which shows that whatever direction the token picks, the entire market will follow.
So far, a lot of indications have pointed to the accumulation of Bitcoin by whales, a term used to describe High Net worth Individuals (HNI’s) or Institutional Investors. If the accumulation continues, a supply shock is expected, thereby pushing the market back into a bull run. With more institutions such as Morgan Stanley, the investment banking mega-giant, investing in Bitcoin, a bull run is highly likely to happen.
Bitcoin was trading at $33,400, down by 3.21% at the time of writing this report.
Ether
The Ethereum network is the second biggest blockchain after Bitcoin. Its native token, Ether, also took a beating in June. It declined almost in line with the market capitalization by 12.65%. The token also traded as low as $1,750 during the month but quickly recovered.
In July, the network will be getting a hard fork upgrade that is intended to battle the high gas fee (transaction fee) that plagues the network when activities are high.
Although in recent times, the gas fees have been significantly low, the network upgrade is important for the blockchain because, at current price levels, investors will be looking to take advantage of the price levels of Ether and also using decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms as an edge against rising global inflation.
Ether was trading at $2,094, down by 1.46% at the time of writing this report.
XRP
The RippleNet payment platform is a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system that aims to enable instant monetary transactions globally. Its native token XRP has been taking a beating as a result of the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against the company.
The SEC is accusing the CEO of selling his XRP holding illegally, but so far, Ripple has been winning the case. In its latest win, the judge denied the SEC access to Ripple’s legal advice.
With regards to the case, the SEC and Ripple will likely settle outside the court as Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, stated that the company intended to go public. So far, in terms of development, RippleNet is making its way into the NFT space as SBI Holdings, a Japan-based financial services company, touts XRP Ledger for NFT use in the tokenization of a variety of assets, as stated by the company in a report called the “Current Management Information Briefing.”
XRP was trading at $0.65, down 0.45% at the time of writing this report.
Polygon
Polygon declined by approximately 40% in June. It started the month at $1.83 only to close at $1.09 approximately. The price has struggled in June but there is a reason that the cryptocurrency might make a comeback.
Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building multiple types of applications.
Polygon’s use case is one of the reasons why Ethereum gas fees are so low today because top applications running on the Ethereum network such as Aave, Kyber Network and SushiSwap have moved to the Polygon protocol recently.
After all, Polygon is a layer 2 solution for the Ethereum network. With more projects moving into the polygon network, it is expected that more demand will come to the coin.
Polygon was down 0.49% and was trading at $1.09 at the time of writing this report.
Solana
SOL is the only cryptocurrency in the top 20 to post gains in June. The token appreciated 12.74% approximately. For an Ethereum challenger, its blockchain network has been doing well so far. Goldman Sachs did a report titled “Beauty is not in the eyes of the beholder” and under next-generation blockchains, it ranked Solana’s blockchain as #3.
The report praised Solana as the fastest public blockchain with cheap transactions and is developer-friendly. The report also says that the full capacity of the blockchain is yet to be seen as it has a small ecosystem.
Solana’s native token SOL is set to be listed on Kraken exchange this month which will do well for the price as major listings tend to help price appreciation.
SOL was up 4.35% and was trading at $33.44 at the time of writing this report.
