Crypto Today: Bitcoin trades in tight range near $14K, NEO rises to record highs

Bitcoin and Ethereum stay quiet on Monday.
NEO outperforms its rivals, edges higher toward $200.

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

The trading action on Monday remained subdued in the crypto space with investors staying on the sidelines amid uncertainties surrounding South Korea's attempt to halt the activity of exchanges. However, it didn't take long for South Koreans to respond to the government. A petition uploaded on the website of the presidential Blue House, which aims to stop the government from regulating cryptocurrencies, reached over 120,000 signatures as of Friday. If the petition reaches 200,000 signatures by January 27, the government will be forced to open a formal investigation and respond on the matter.

In the meantime, the BTC/USD pair fluctuated in a tight range near $14K and was last seen trading at $14,100, where it was up 3.5% on the day, while the EHT/USD was virtually unchanged at $1323 based on the latest available data on coinmarketcap.com.

One cryptocurrency stood out in a relatively quiet Monday. NEO, aka 'Chinese Ethereum', reached an all-time high at $193 by gaining nearly 25% on the day. "Having had little price movement over Q4 last year, NEO looks to step up its game going into 2018, with highly innovative projects including the already successful Red Pulse ICO, the world’s first decentralized mobile phone network, Qlink, and a community-driven NEON exchange, NEX, based on the NEO blockchain," Ollie Leech of cryptovest.com explained in a recent article.

The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies was little changed near $700 billion on Monday with Bitcoin remaining as the largest cryptocurrency with a market dominance of 33.73%.

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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