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The price of Bitcoin rallied to $18,000 on some exchanges as traders rolled their altcoins profits back into Bitcoin. Many top-tier coins, including Ethereum, experienced price declines, causing them to lose part of the market share that they had fought to recoup during bitcoin’s mid-week slump.
Other cryptocurrencies like Ripple and Litecoin, and one other top-tier altcoin lifted the cryptocurrency market cap by $19 billion, raising it to a new height of $530 billion.
Although the majority of cryptocurrencies posted single-day declines on Friday, the bitcoin price rallied more than eight percent, enabling it to crack the $18,000 mark and inch closer to its all-time high.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin price is trading at $17,848, which translates into a $298 billion market cap. It was this time last week that we saw price run towards $20,000. Whether it actually happens again, remains to be seen.
As for the altcoins, that had been on a mid-week surge. Ethereum price, had leaped to a new all-time high of $752, and many investors began to believe that $1,000 was on the horizon.
However, the Ethereum price experienced a 10%correction on Friday, reducing the second-largest cryptocurrency to a present value of $653, translating into a $63 billion market cap.
The altcoin markets were mixed on Friday with a handful of cryptocurrencies posting significant increases but the majority engaging in a retreat. On the whole, the altcoin market cap dropped to $227 billion – a single-day decline of $6 billion.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Indiegogo looks to make ICOs mainstream
Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo is planning to help ICOs break into the mainstream. Indiegogo’s new ICO investment platform will introduce this nascent fundraising model to a wide swath of potential investors who – despite the year’s ICO hype – have never participated in a token sale.
The platform will support both utility and security tokens, and it will help startups comply with SEC regulations governing securities offerings. Non-accredited investors will be able to invest up to $10,000 in each ICO – even those registered as securities – although each company will be restricted to $1 million in contributions from this class of investors.
Over the course of its ten-year history, Indiegogo has helped startups raise more than $1 billion. While this new ICO platform will help token sales further permeate the mainstream, the service also represents a significant growth opportunity for the company.
2. India’s tax department raided local Bitcoin exchanges
India’s Income Tax Department, which falls under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance, began conducting surveys across the country on December 13, 2017. Investigators for the government agency visited nine exchanges spread out across Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, and Gurgaon.
It was reported that the tax men visited exchanges with financial data and inputs already in their possession and wanted to know more about the workings of cryptocurrency exchanges in India.
India’s central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been repeating the warnings on Virtual Currencies. As of now, the status of Bitcoin and other digital currencies is before the Indian Supreme Court.
3. Japan’s GMO Internet Group to pay thousands of workers in Bitcoin
GMO Internet Group, a Japanese provider of a full spectrum of internet services for both the consumer and enterprise markets, is introducing a system for employees to receive part of their salary in Bitcoin.
The move is partly motivated by the desire to promote the adoption of Bitcoin, which is a strategic priority for GMO. In fact, the group is vigorously active in Bitcoin trading and mining services, as well as mining hardware development. Therefore, anything that is good for Bitcoin is also good for GMO.