Most volatile cryptocurrencies 2020: February follows January’s trend on volatile crypto values
08:56, 25 February 2020
The surge of Bitcoin (BTC) has fueled the expectations of a bright 2020 for traders and investors and has confirmed some of the predictions voiced by well-known cryptocurrency investors who anticipated this scenario in the closing days of 2019.
Analysing the most relevant crypto market latest news, we can’t avoid the announcement made by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who indicated that new regulations were about to be rolled out to increase the transparency of cryptocurrency transactions.
Even though this news should have affected the most recent price surge to some extent, it seems that the markets are too caught up in a BTC-led rally that has also been followed by Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and other major cryptocurrencies.
Investors appear to be influenced by the upcoming BTC halving event of May 2020. The crypto market has been receiving inflows from traders fleeing from traditional securities that are widely exposed to the development of the coronavirus in China.
This surge in demand has fueled prices and may keep up its pace, driven by positive news from big financial institutions. For instance, JP Morgan is said to be planning the merger of its Quorum blockchain unit with a startup called ConsenSys. This would represent the sort of institutional support and be considered as an enormous vote of confidence from a big bank, which can push the digital currencies towards mainstream adoption.
Here’s a brief summary of how the market has behaved throughout February including a list of the most heavily traded and the most volatile cryptos.
Cryptocurrency market outlook February 2020
BTC/USD started the month at $9,300 preceded by a strong rise throughout January and by February 09 it was already touching the $10,000 mark.
XRP/USD also saw a significant increase in its market value during January, jumping from $0.19 to $0.24 and crossing the $0.30 mark only a few days ago.
The ETH/USD pair, on the other hand, started the month at nearly $181 and it is progressively moving closer to the $300s, while the LTC/USD pair has jumped from $70 to $81, following the market’s overall trend.
The top 5 most traded pairs as of now are BTC/USD, XRP/USD, ETH/USD, TRX/USD, and LTC/USD.
On the other hand, the 5 top risers for the month include STEEM/BTC, TRX/USD, TRX/BTC, BCH/USD, and BCH/BTC.
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Most volatile cryptocurrencies in February 2020
Volatility in cryptocurrencies is measured by using a statistical metric known as the Standard Deviation (SD). This metric is calculated by looking at the fluctuation of the average value of the cryptocurrency during a certain number of hours, days, or weeks. The wider the fluctuation, the higher the volatility of the cryptoasset.
A volatile cryptocurrency is one with a value that may increase or decrease significantly farther than its average price and the higher the volatility of a crypto, the more uncertain its future performance is considered to be.
Some traders and investors profit from volatile cryptocurrency markets, looking to take advantage of directional movements such as the most recent surge in BTC values. Nevertheless, volatility can go both ways and a sudden surge may be followed by a sudden decline.
As of February, these 5 pairs have been the most volatile cryptocurrencies in the market.
Tron to Bitcoin – TRX/BTC
TRX is the basic unit of account for the TRON blockchain. This cryptocurrency is traded across all the major crypto exchanges, it has an estimated market capitalisation of $1 billion, and it is ranked as 12th largest cryptocurrency in the market. This cryptocurrency was launched in 2017 by Justin Sun and supports a decentralised open-source blockchain protocol.
The TRX/BTC pair indicates the value of TRX expressed in BTC and its value peaked at BTC 0.000023 after an early-February rally from its initial value of BTC 0.0000019. This surge was followed by a quick decline to BTC 0.0000021 and a subsequent increase that sent the value of this volatile crypto to BTC 0.0000025.
Steem to Bitcoin - STEEM/BTC
Steem is a social blockchain that powers a social-media-like community where publishers are rewarded for sharing content. Steem-based apps include Steemit, a social blogging platform; eSteem, a steem-based mobile app, and Dtube which is a decentralised video sharing platform. This cryptocurrency was introduced in 2016 by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer and it claims to have rewarded content creators with millions of dollars for sharing their ideas, pictures, and blogs through its platform.
The STEEM/BTC pair expresses the value of STEEM in BTCs and its volatility has spiked since early February when it was traded at nearly BTC 0.000170 and then increased suddenly to 0.0000264, a 55 per cent return in only 6 days.
Bitshares / Bitcoin - BTS/BTC
The Bitshares blockchain was introduced in 2015 by Dan Larimer using industrial-grade technology to assist organisations and individuals through a secure peer-to-peer distributed ledger that can also issue collateralised smart coins that track a financial benchmark such as the USD or a market index such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500.
The BTS/BTC pair closes our list of volatile cryptocurrencies in February as its value has fluctuated significantly since January when it reached a bottom of BTC 0.0000019 to then start the month with a huge 78 per cent surge to reach BTC 0.0000034, continuing its growth throughout the month climbing to BTC 0.0000037 by February 14.
Stay tuned to the latest cryptomarket news, which can drive Bitcoin and altcoins price movement. Track the performance of the top-20 cryptocurrencies live and trade crypto CFDs with Capital.com.
Markets in this article