Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, has been holding on to the $3,800 level over the past two days after falling from slightly over $4,200, as its trading volume along with that of Ethereum’s ether has reached a 7-month high.
According to CryptoCompare data bitcoin has lost 0.4% of its value in the last 24-hour period and is currently trading at $3,786. While it’s trading slightly below the $3,800 level, it has been hovering around it for the last two days. The cryptocurrency is up over 10% in the last two weeks.
While bitcoin’s price hasn’t been performing too well this year, adoption and development seemingly haven’t slowed down. As CryptoGlobe reported the number of cryptocurrency ATMs has doubled to over 4,000 this year, meaning about 6 have been installed a day.
Moreover the cryptocurrency’s layer-two scaling solution, the Lightning Network (LN), has kept on growing. So much so that it currently has over 15,000 mainnet payment channels open, and a capacity of over 500 BTC, with an average channel capacity of 0.032 BTC.
A wallet supporting the layer two scaling solution, BlueWallet, has recently added support for it for iOS and Android users, leaving the complexity associated with it behind. This month, a crypto artist sold a tiny artwork for $0.000000037 via the LN, in what was potentially the cheapest art sale ever.
Trading Volumes Hit 7-Month High
Notably, bitcoin’s trading volume has recently hit a 7-month high, according to TheBlock, as its weekly trading volume hit $46 billion between December 17 and 23. Its total volume for this year surpassed $2 trillion.
Ethereum’s ether has also seen its volume surge. Per the news outlet, its trading volume was of over $800 million this year, making it the second most traded cryptocurrency. Notably, its price has been recovering from a recent low of about $82.
At press time, ETH is trading at $126 after dropping 3.1% in the last 24-hour period. In the last two weeks the cryptocurrency is still up by over 20%.
At press time, most other top altcoins are down. While Litecoin, XRP, and BCH are down between 2.1% and 3.3%, other altcoins including TRX, ZEC, and BSV are down by less than 1%. NEO, Ethereum Classic, and Waves are currently up by 0.4%, 6.3%, and 2.9% respectively.
