It certainly was an eventful weekend for cryptocurrency traders. Here's what you need to know:
After sinking as low as US$7,796 per coin on Saturday, the bitcoin (BTC) price rebounded to almost US$9,500 on Sunday according to Coin Market Cap. However, this appears to have just been a short reprieve for the world's largest cryptocurrency. At the time of writing the BTC price has fallen 13% over the last 24 hours to US$8,051, reducing its market capitalisation to US$135 billion.
Ethereum (ETH) has been just as volatile this weekend. It fell to a low of US$779 in the early hours of Saturday, before recovering to US$990. The ETH price is now sinking lower again and has fallen 17% during the last 24 hours to US$805. This has left it with a market capitalisation of US$78.4 billion.
The Ripple (XRP) price is now fetching 80.3 U.S. cents, down 14% since this time yesterday. Over the weekend the third-largest cryptocurrency tumbled as low as 63.5 U.S. cents, before climbing back up to 96 U.S. cents. Unfortunately for Ripple fans it wasn't able to hold onto those gains for long, leaving it with a reduced market capitalisation of US$31.3 billion.
Bitcoin spin-off Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has being just as volatile. It fell as low as US$990 on Saturday before recovering to as high as US$1,314 on Sunday. Since then the fourth-largest cryptocurrency has given back a good portion of these gains and is currently priced at US$1,117 per coin, giving it a market capitalisation of US$18.9 billion.
Finally, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency Cardano (ADA) has fallen over 15% to 37.5 U.S. cents since this time yesterday. Cardano has arguably been the most volatile crypto amongst the majors this weekend. It fell as low as US$27.7 cents and then rebounded to a high of US$48.6 cents on Sunday. At its current price ADA has a market capitalisation of US$9.7 billion.
Foolish takeaway
I think these wild swings demonstrate why the crypto markets are high risk and largely unsuitable for most investors. In light of this, I would suggest investors watch on from the safety of the sidelines and focus on high quality investment options on the local share market instead.
