This next chart shows the performance of the five of the larger cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC/USD). The cryptocurrencies shown in this chart and the accompanying table further down, is not comprehensive and is chosen as a sample of the more popular and widely traded cryptocurrencies.
It is interesting to see that the cryptocurrencies shown all started to accelerate higher around early-November, except for Ripple (XRP/USD). Ripple was late to the party but doesn’t seem to be losing any time making up for the slow start. You can see how it has been rising rapidly recently while the other major cryptos start to pullback. For the month of December Ripple has advanced more than 700 percent. The Ripple token is used to facilitate global payments by banks and other financial institutions.
Following the strong performance of Ripple is Dash (DASH/USD). Dash was up at least 9,400 percent for 2017 through Dec. 31. Dash broke out of a 32-month base into new high territory in February and has barely looked back. Over the past 10 months, since the breakout, Dash as advanced as much as 10,584 percent, as of its recent high of $1,595.76 reached in December. So far, since reaching that high, Dash has moved into a pullback, falling as much as 51 percent before bouncing.
Ethereum (ETH/USD) was the third-best performer for the year, up at about 9,000 percent to $757 at Dec 31. It started 2017 very strong, rising over 5,000 percent in the first five months before moving into a four-month or so consolidation phase. A classic symmetrical triangle consolidation pattern formed subsequent to the top. Ethereum broke out of that pattern with conviction in November, rising a little over 100 percent before confronting resistance at $863.0 last decade of December and sliding into a retracement. To date, the retracement has seen as much as a 40 percent loss in value from the high.
In fourth place comes Litecoin (LTC/USD), with a 5,582 percent advance of the year so far. Litecoin has been pulling back over the past couple of weeks, since hitting resistance at a record high of $420.0. That high completed a 735.8 percent increase in only six weeks, starting at the low of a three-week pullback at the beginning of November. The move was accompanied by increasing volume until the top, which is where weekly volume reached a record high.
Let’s now jump to Bitcoin, which comes in sixth place for the year out of the cryptocurrencies selected. Of course, Bitcoin has been the one getting much of the attention in the sector since the summer. It is up 1,390 percent year-to-date and was up as much as 1,935 percent at the record high of $19,666 hit mid-December. Interestingly, the second highest volume week of the past two years was seen in the next week following that record high. That was a down week.
Bitcoin had been advancing in a nicely formed parallel trend channel since the first quarter of the year until later in November. At that point, Bitcoin broke out through the top trend line of the channel and began to accelerate higher. This can be seen in the increase in the angle of ascent of price in the following chart.
IOTA (IOT/USD) takes seventh place with an advance of 1,356 percent since June, when it was launched. The high for 2017 was two weeks ago at $5.80. At the point, IOTA was up over 1,700 percent in just seven weeks. It subsequently declined as much as 80 percent off the high.
Finally, there is Bitcoin Cash (BCH/USD), released in August. Since then BCH has risen to $2,553 from $320. It continues to progress in an uptrend with higher swing highs and higher swing lows. It was up as much as 1,150 percent at the recent $4,000.10 high from Dec. 20.
