After hitting a fresh high in mid December of $20,000 on some of the exchanges on the back of launch of futures trading in the token, the digital currency which once led the crypto universe in both value and market cap soon retreated on both fronts.

Another reason hinted at the move is the emergence of newer cryptocurrencies.

The market cap of bitcoin hit an all time low of $232 billion on January 10, 2018 accounting for just 33.7% of the total market capitalization of all the cryptos together. This figure in the beginning of 2017 stood at 80% in comparison.

The panic selling in the token after stringent action across the globe was initiated against it also made the currency to hit a low last reached in January 2015.

Economies including South Korea, China, US tightened their belts to stamp out the cryptocurrency.

Read about Other developments in the week gone by here.

Altcoins that have come in fore include-

Let us first understand what an altcoin is- it is an alternative to bitcoin. Few of them including ethereum which on Monday last week gained the second spot and a few others like ripple are known to you.

Here is included a number of lately introduced altcoins Monero, Zcash, Stellar, IOTA, Bitcoin Cash.

But as the problems around bitcoin are increasing due to its constraint per se government regulation and minting limit, it remains surely a wait and watch policy for investors in bitcoins.

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