Tuesday marked a notable day for digital-currency trade, which saw cryptocurrencies on an astounding tear, driven at least partially by what appears to be an avalanche of speculative interest in anything remotely linked to virtual assets.
How intense has the fervor underpinned by appetite for bitcoin BTCUSD, -2.73% been?
Of the top 100 cybercurrencies tracked by digital-currency research and data site Coinmarketcap.com, only about 10 were trading in negative territory on Tuesday, while the 10 most prominent assets by virtue of market value were up by 20% on average.
That included a 55.6% rally for Ripple, or XRP, which boasts the ability to facilitate trades of other digital currencies on its software protocol and has become a go-to platform for Wall Street investors eager to use its blockchain, or distributed ledger, to do business.
Rumors in social media, which couldn’t be immediately confirmed, suggested that Ripple may trade on a popular exchange, which could support further buying in the asset. Ripple coins have rallied some 6,600% over the past 12 months to 39 cents in recent trade from 0.006 cents last year. The Ripple network has a market value of about $15 billion, making it the fifth largest among Coinmarket.cap’s top assets.
Meanwhile, Litecoin tokens have been on such a heady tear that its founder Charlie Lee, who uses the Twitter handle Satoshi Lite, issued a warning to speculators, pointing to the possibility that the asset could enter a bear market just as quickly as it has shot higher.
Yes, @fluffypony does all the time!
— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) December 11, 2017
Still, investors shook off the admonishment to drive a single Litecoin’s price deeper into triple digits.
The No. 2 most prominent cyber-asset, Ether, running on the Ethereum blockchain, gained 16% Tuesday to about $600. Ether tokens have vaulted 7,400% year-to-date.
Underpinning the crypto craze has been the granddaddy cybercurrency of them all: bitcoin.
Read: The only form of bitcoin likely to end up under your Christmas tree
On Tuesday, bitcoin futures expiring in January XBTF8, -2.00% settled at $18,020, down 2.8% from the prior day’s settlement at $18,545, according to Cboe Global Market Inc.’s CBOE, +1.01% exchange. Bitcoin futures made their debut on Sunday, offering a modicum of legitimacy on Wall Street to the nascent, but rapidly growing, crytoasset.
Meanwhile, spot prices for bitcoin were trading up at $17,555, representing a gain on the day of about 2.9%.
Demand for bitcoin has climbed about 1,900% so far in 2017, but has polarized many in business and Wall Street, with enthusiasts offering stratospheric forecasts for where a single bitcoin will trade in the future.
Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of Social Capital and a former Facebook Inc. FB, -1.16% executive said that a bitcoin could be $1 million in the next 20 years.
Read: Bitcoin needs to be worth $1,000,000 to be a legitimate currency
Check out the CNBC video below:
That said, worries about the frenzy for bitcoin, which has ridden to quadruple-digit percentage gains this year, continue to lead to persistent warnings that the mania for bitcoin and others of its ilk are in bubble territory, surpassing the tulip mania of the 17th century.
In other words, buyer beware.