Crypto market recovery falters, bears on the alert

• Altcoins recover from losses incurred at the end of the previous week.
• Bitcoin returned to $3,500 after an epic fail on Friday.

Cryptocurrency market has been recovering since Friday when Bitcoin and other major altcoins touched new lows of 2018. Currently, the total capitalization of the digital assets in circulation rose to $113B from as low as $103B on December 7. While it is too early to claim that the worst is over, crypto investors obviously got some breathing space.

“The price of bitcoin has crippled on the back of this, and I think it is likely that the price may not only drop below the $2K mark but with this kind of momentum behind it, the price can test the 1500 level. Simply put, the bad news keeps coming just like cockroaches coming out of a hole,” Naeem Aslam, from Think Markets U.K. commented.

Bitcoin has gained 10% since the recent low and about 3% since this time on Sunday. The first digital coin is trading marginally above $3,530 handle, though, it is still below Sunday's high of $3,637. BTC has lost about 84% as compared to the all-time high reached above $19,000 one year later, but it is not the first time the asset devalued significantly. 

Ethereum, the third largest digital asset, climbs towards critical $100. ETH/USD is trading at $93.00 at the time of writing, having gained 1% in the recent 24 hours. The coin's market value is registered at $9.7B, while the average trading volumes have settled marginally below $2B, down from $2.5B on Friday.

Ripple's XRP traded as low as $0.2897; however, now the coin is changing hands at $0.3100, 7% higher since the recent low and 1% since this time on Sunday. The second largest coin with market value $12.7B moves in sync with global sentiments on the cryptocurrency market, which means that the recovery may gain traction within the next trading sessions.

All major altcoins out of top20 are in green; however, the recovery momentum seems to be waning away after a steady growth on Sunday. The bears might take back the control over the situation if we don't see follow through within the next sessions.