Welcome to “Top 5 Cryptocurrency Movers” where I look at all the major crypto coins on the market and choose the five that made the biggest move (either positive or negative) on this day, explaining my thoughts why the move happened, as well as the historical significance of the particular crypto. Here are my top five cryptocurrency movers for December 24, 2020:
#5: Ethereum (ETH) ($593.30, -2.77%)
The second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, fell below the $600 price mark for the first time in over a week. While not a massive fall in today’s trading for ETH, the reason why the fall might be significant in the future is because of the SEC’s lawsuit filing of Ripple and the fear that more altcoins might suffer a similar fate. There are currently more than 200,000 ERC-20 compatible tokens on Ethereum’s main network.
#4: Polkadot (DOT) ($5.11, +3.44%)
Polkadot’s DOT tokens are one of the few winners in today’s market, on news that their DeFi Insurance App raised nearly two million dollars, as well as a partnership with Reef Finance. The Polkadot blockchain works similar than Ethereum but can run higher transaction throughput because of sophisticated design.
#3: Ripple (XRP) ($0.2610, -17.93%)
For the third consecutive day, XRP suffered a double-digit percentage loss. Ripple is currently in a battle with the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the latter filed a lawsuit, stating that XRP is an unregistered security and Ripple illegally sold it to the public. Companies have started distancing themselves from Ripple, including MoneyGram, Bitwise, Beaxy, CrossTower and OSL.
#2: NEM (XEM) ($0.2290, -13.68%)
Another one of the hardest hit cryptocurrencies today was NEM, falling almost 14%. While NEM is currently off the lows of the day, it has been one of the altcoins that fell due to the price collapse of Ripple. To those unfamiliar, NEM stands for New Economy Movement, and is a smart asset blockchain and a technology platform that seeks to be cost-efficient in managing data easily.
#1: Chainlink (LINK) ($11.16, -5.54%)
The final crypto mover on the day is Chainlink, down more than 5% on news that they could be the next cryptocurrency to face the wrath of the SEC. According to Zeus Capital, LINK has had questionable practices over the years, including its numerous partnerships and is a direct beneficiary of the Flash Loan phenomenon in DeFi. They believe LINK will be classified as an illegal security and prosecution will follow.
Note that these prices are as of 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST on the given day, and might not reflect the current price of the coin at the time of viewing this post.
