In spite of the steep increase in trading volumes of a cryptocurrency over the last few years, the top 5 names of cryptocurrency (in terms of market capitalization) were more or less fixed. Or at least the top 4 were, in any case – Bitcoin BTC, Ethereum ETH, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash BCH – were the undeniable favorites in the horse race.
For quite some time, the next name was Litecoin LTC, followed by EOS. This week, this order of things got turned around a bit when EOS overtook LTC to become the fifth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, as per the rankings on CoinMarketCap, which is one of the most respected trackers of cryptocurrency values.
Market Cap
As we moved into the last week of May 2019, the tussle between EOS and LTC for 5th position on the charts had been heating up. Even on the 26th of May, LTC with a market cap of $6.90 billion led EOS comfortably, who had a market cap of $6.30 billion. However, by EOD of 29th May, this lead had not only been narrowed but actually overturned. EOS with a $7.38 billion market cap had jumped to 5th position on the list, to go beyond LTC at $7.12 billion.
Trading Volumes
The past 24 hours since EOD of 29th May had also exhibited similar trends. For example, the $7.38 billion market cap for EOS had actually been $7.07 billion only but suddenly exploded in 24 hours. In this period, the trading volumes for EOS had been $3.99 billion. At the end of the period, the price of the EOS was $7.59.
Major Exchanges Involved
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In terms of contributions to this turnaround by EOS, the biggest name was that of OKEx, who contributed $2.09 billion out of the $3.99 billion trading volumes in the preceding 24 hours. This was done through the EOS/USDT set. Another digital asset exchange who contributed hugely was Huobi Global. On the other hand, the exchanges who carried the largest volumes of LTC transactions in this crucial period were Coineal and Dobi.
What are the Possible Reasons Behind this Positive Shift in the Position of EOS?
The following two reasons are thought to be behind the spike in the performance of EOS:
· Halving of LTC:
The first is a phenomenon called halving, which is unique to cryptocurrency. It is an event which has been designed in order to control the problem of coin inflation in a cryptocurrency. The people who mine for cryptocurrency would get only half the value of cryptocurrency they would earlier get for starting a new block. This is a protocol defined event and gets triggered. Normally any coin gains when there is news of an impending halving. That is because the investors aim to scoop up as much value as possible. There was news that LTC was going to go for a halving in 70 days. But in the case of LTC, this news of halving actually worked contrary to historical trends, and the market cap of LTC fell.
· EOS Purchase:
The second reason was a tweet sent out by EOS New York indicating a purchase of 3.3 million EOS worth of RAM by Block.one.
BREAKING: @block_one_ just purchased 3.3MM EOS worth of RAM ($20MM) on #EOS. Are they deploying a product on June 1? #bullish $eos https://t.co/coCCR3TCgA pic.twitter.com/tcsPrRtf6u
— Kevin Rose (@kroseranger) May 27, 2019
Block.one is an open source software publisher. They provide blockchain solutions to businesses, helping them with turnkey solutions like infrastructure and development of decentralized blockchain applications. The backstory to this was that in December last year, they became aware of an EOSIO RAM resource exploit, following which they quickly made a patch and distributed it (within 24 hours) to all public blockchains using EOSIO.
What Lies Ahead for EOS?
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Experts peg the five-year price forecast for EOS at around $143, which allows for substantial appreciation for investors holding EOS. This news of EOS rising one place in the rankings for the market cap is sure to get more and more investors interested in EOS.
