Crypto Today: Bitcoin records modest gains, XLM outperforms rivals

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

The top three cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, remained confined in relatively tight ranges on Wednesday. As of writing, the BTC/USD pair was up 1.4% at $11,300 while the ETH/USD was adding 4% at $1,040, according to the latest available data on coinmarketcap.com.

Weiss Ratings today released its highly anticipated, first ever, Cryptocurrency Ratings, which showed none of the currencies in the listing was able to get a grade of A. "Bitcoin (rated C+) gets excellent scores for security and widespread adoption. But it is encountering major network bottlenecks, causing delays and high transactions costs. Despite intense ongoing efforts that are achieving some initial success, Bitcoin has no immediate mechanism for promptly upgrading its software code," Weiss Ratings noted in its assessment of Bitcoin. "Ethereum (B), the second most widely adopted cryptocurrency, benefits from more readily upgradable technology and better speed, despite some bottlenecks," the agency further explained.

Meanwhile, Stellar's XLM coin outperformed its rivals on Wednesday after Stripe, an online payment service provider, announced that it was planning to add XLM support in their system to eventually phase out the use of Bitcoin. The XLM/USD pair jumped more than 20% during the day before starting to consolidate its gains and was last seen trading at $0.56, where it was still up nearly 14% on a daily basis.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies remained steady around $550 billion territory on Wednesday.

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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GBP/USD resumes the downtrend, back to the low-1.3600s

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XRP steadies in narrow range as fund inflows, futures interest rise

Ripple is trading in a narrow range between $1.45 (immediate support) and $1.50 (resistance) at the time of writing on Monday. The remittance token extended its recovery last week, peaking at $1.67 on Sunday from the weekly open at $1.43.