2017 was a stellar year in general for cryptocurrencies as the price of many coins soared astronomically. The effect was an even greater spotlight being shined on the cryptocurrency market with a whole new group of investors joining the market. However, towards the end of the year, the price of some cryptocurrencies began to fall. Issues coming out of South Korea and many other countries introduced caution into the market. Reports of an imminent ban of crypto trading activities in South Korea didn’t help matters as well. Heading into January, there had been some tumult in the market.
The low-key tumult in the market degenerated into a full-blown downward spiral in the prices of cryptocurrencies. Some days in January, only a handful of coins would have positive 24-hour price movements. The price of bitcoin fell below $10,000 which is the lowest it has been in more than two months. Ethereum, Ripple, and the rest of the top 10 also suffered a similar fate. The total market cap also declined from over $800 billion at the start of the month to less than $500 billion by February.
January was all intents and purposes, a wretched month for cryptocurrencies but there were positive price movements experienced by a few cryptocurrencies. Here are the top performing cryptocurrencies in January 2018.
1. Stellar (XLM)
Despite the theft of over $400,000 worth of Stellar Lumens (XLM) from the BlackWallet cryptocurrency service, XLM continued to rise throughout the month of January. By means of a script-based DNS attack, the hacker was able to steak about 670,000 XLM and caused major disruptions to the BlackWallet service.
The price of XLM grew by almost 20,000 percent in the year 2017, and the trend has continued into the new year. The cryptocurrency has had great success in forming sustainable partnerships with firms like IBM. The cryptocurrency is also listed on the Binance cryptocurrency trading platform making it more accessible to investors. Here is a summary look at the XLM growth in January 2018.
- Price on January 1: $0.36
- Price on January 31: $0.53
- Highest Recorded January Price: $0.90 (January 4)
- Market Cap Rank: seventh
- CoinGecko Rank: eighth
2. NEO (NEO)
NEO shares a lot of similarities with Ethereum. It is more than just a cryptocurrency token as it also a platform upon which applications can be built with a focus on smart economy applications. The project was launched in December 2016, and it was formerly known as Antshares.
Dubbed the “Chinese Ethereum,” the were fears for the survival of the platform after the September 2017 ICO ban by the Chinese government. NEO has been able to weather the storm, posting positive growth figures throughout January. Here is a summary look at NEO’s growth in January 2018.
- Price on January 1: $74.54
- Price on January 31: $145.76
- Highest Recorded January Price: $194.70 (January 15)
- Market Cap Rank: eighth
- CoinGecko Rank: sixth
3. VeChain (VEN)
VeChain is another crypto project that is trying to set itself apart from the crowd. The project has been focused on the ICO and DApps market, with an emphasis on powering the emergence of the IoT. VeChain has struck partnership deals with large Chinese firms.
The cryptocurrency didn’t experience much growth in 2017, but the situation seems to be changing considerably. Here is a summary look at the VEN growth in January 2018.
- Price on January 1: $2.26
- Price on January 31: $5.58
- Highest Recorded January Price: $9.55 (January 22)
- Market Cap Rank: seventeenth
- CoinGecko Rank: 62
It might have been a difficult opening period of the year for many cryptocurrencies, but it isn’t all doom and gloom. The performance of these cryptocurrencies may begin to serve as an eye-opener as to how the crypto market will evolve. It is still early days in the year, and the crypto terrain is bound to change dramatically before December 2018.
The post Stellar, Neo and VeChain: the Top Performing Cryptocurrencies of January 2018 appeared first on BTCMANAGER.
Author: BTCManager.com
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