Cryptocurrency market watchers had their eyes glued to the US$28,000 support level as bitcoin continued trading in a range between US$27,800 and US$28,700. The stability of the world’s largest cryptocurrency came despite a selloff in stocks and an expected increase in political uncertainty ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden in January.

The digital currency managed to muster gains of 6.5% this week, which was better than the S&P 500 index’s growth of 2%.

In Friday morning trading, bitcoin wiped out all of its earlier gains, falling as low as US$27,740 but bouncing back to US$28,200 by 11:00 a.m. HK/SIN time. On the day, the digital asset was up 0.05% against the U.S. dollar.

Meanwhile, the price of ether was down 10% to US$747.68 by 11:00 a.m. HK/SIN time and witnessed one of the biggest drops among non-stablecoins. This comes after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned Wednesday that the exploding popularity and adoption of DeFi has caused "significant security risks" and called for "strong standards" and regulations to be put in place.

Ether led the losses in the non-stabilized cryptocurrency segment since 76% of the projects working on DeFi run on the Ethereum blockchain. DeFi refers to a set of technologies and financial services that rely on smart contracts and the blockchain structure to automate various processes, to enable permissionless access, and to tokenize assets.

The increasing popularity of the Ethereum blockchain and growing investor interest in it have propelled its currency ether to a record high of US$1,233 on Tuesday.

The rally in the digital asset market shows no signs of slowing as the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies exceeds the US$760 billion mark. The top 10 digital assets control over 90% of the market and the emergence of diversified digital currencies is likely to create more competition for the leading cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency market held steady on Friday morning as Bitcoin held above the support line at $28,000. Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, however, were mostly down. The US Treasury Secretary warned of the potential security risks posed by the rising popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi). Bitcoin managed to gain 6.5% this week with the S&P 500 index’s being up 2%. Bitcoin traded between $27,800 and $28,700, falling as low as $27,740 and bouncing back to $28,200 by 11am HK/SIN time. Ether was down 10% to $747.68, one of the steepest losses among non-stablecoins, which can be attributed to the Secretary's warning. The emergence of the market of diversified digital currencies is creating more competition to the top currencies and its total market capitalization has surpassed $760 billion.



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