Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Stellar sink lower after profit taking weighs on crypto market

Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Stellar prices have sunk lower after profit taking weighed heavily on the crypto market…

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Unfortunately for traders, the crypto rebound was only short lived and declines are being seen across the board on Friday morning.

This has left the entire market with a value of US$136.8 billion according to Coin Market Cap, down 3.5% since this time yesterday.

What's been happening?

These declines are likely to be attributable to profit taking after Bitcoin and its crypto peers rocketed notably higher the previous day.

In fact, the only real piece of news that was released over the last 24 hours was arguably a positive for the market.

That news related to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stating his belief that cryptocurrencies are here to stay despite the recent market rout.

According to Forbes, Jeff Sprecher spoke positively about Bitcoin at the Consensus: Invest conference in New York.

He said: "Somehow bitcoin has lived in a swamp and survived. There are thousands of other tokens that you could argue are better but yet bitcoin continues to survive, thrive and attract attention. "Often times in finance, it's not about being the best — it turns out to be about being the broadest and the most commonly accepted and for whatever reason bitcoin has become that."

I think Sprecher makes a valid point on Bitcoin and feel it probably has the best chance of success in the space if the crypto market is here to stay.

In the meantime, though, here's how the major coins are performing at the moment compared to 24 hours ago:

The Bitcoin (BTC) price is down 1.9% to US$4,235.99. This leaves the crypto giant with a market capitalisation of US$73.7 billion.

The Ripple (XRP) price has tumbled 4.8% to 37.71 U.S. cents. This decline has reduced the XRP market capitalisation to US$15.2 billion.

The Ethereum (ETH) price is 4.9% lower to US$117.74 per token, reducing its market capitalisation to US$12.2 billion.

The Stellar (XLM) price has edged 0.4% lower to 16.4 U.S. cents. Stellar is now the fourth largest coin with a market capitalisation of US$3.15 billion.

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price has plunged 7.7% lower to US$179.62 per token, leaving the Bitcoin offshoot with a market capitalisation of US$3.1 billion.

Outside the top five the declines continued with EOS (EOS) down a massive 10.2%, Litecoin (LTC) off 4.3%, Tether (USDT) down 0.25%, Bitcoin SV (BSV) lower by 4.6%, and Cardano (ADA) down 2%.

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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