Crypto Markets See Red, European Stocks Teeter in Wake of Brexit Deadline Extension

Thursday, April 11 — after a bullish week, all of the top twenty cryptocurrencies are reporting slight to moderate losses on the day by press time, as Bitcoin (BTC) corrects down close to the $5,100 mark.

Market visualization courtesy of Coin360

Bitcoin is down close to 2.8% on the day, and is trading at around $5,106 by press time, according to CoinMarketCap. The top coin has seen a week of near-consistent growth, hitting an multi-month price high of over $5,420 yesterday, April 10.

Today’s correction has brought Bitcoin’s weekly gains to around 3.3%.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

The largest altcoin by market cap, Ethereum (ETH), has taken a price hit, down 7.8% on the day to trade at $166.23. The alt has seen a jagged trading pattern over the week, first growing to hit an intra-week high of over $180 on April 8, before faltering downward to its current price point, notwithstanding a brief spike yesterday. On the week, Ethereum remains up by 3%.

Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Ripple (XRP) has reported a loss of 5.8% on the day, and is currently trading at around $0.335. On its weekly chart, the altcoin peaked at $0.373 on April 5, and has seen a tempered and consistent decline since. XRP is now down close to 2.4% on the week.

Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Among the uniformly red top 10 cryptocurrencies, Litecoin (LTC) is reporting the largest losses, down 9.8% on the day to trade at $79.40. It is closely followed by 5th largest crypto Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which has taken an 8.35% loss on the day to press time.

Widening out to the top twenty, the heaviest losers are 19th-ranked crypto Ontology (ONT), down a stark 13% on the day, 11th-ranked Tron (TRX), down 11.3%, and 16th-ranked NEO, down close to 11.75%.

Tezos (XTZ), ranked 20th, has seen the mildest losses of all top 20 coins, down just 1% to press time.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is currently around to $173.2 billion, down 0.4% on the week.

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. Source: CoinMarketCap

In crypto and blockchain news, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said yesterday that blockchain innovators are shaking the traditional financial world, and having a clear impact on the moves of incumbent players.  

Meanwhile, a United States Department of Energy project to use blockchain to bolster power plant security is entering its second phase, aiming to implement the technology to prevent remote attacks such as those that afflicted Ukraine’s grid in 2016.

In traditional markets, European markets are faltering after yesterday’s EU summit decision to grant the United Kingdom a “flextension” of up to six months for the Article 50 deadline for Brexit. The pan-European Stoxx 600 edged slightly lower soon after the markets opened, with sectors and major bourses pointing in opposite directions, CNBC reports.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its monthly oil market report this morning, attributing a dramatic increase in prices to a turnaround in supply following the implementation of the new Vienna Agreement and greater effectiveness of sanctions against Iran and Venezuela.

According to the IEA supply analysis, crude oil production from OPEC countries tumbled 550 kb/d, to 30.1 mb/d. Global oil supply dropped 340 kb/d, and global refining throughput fell by 2.5 mb/d. The IEA further notes new uncertainty due to the recent military crisis in Libya.