January 2020 was marked by massive growth in the crypto market.Even less-known altcoins raced forward, adding more than 50 per cent to their value.While the bull stampede seems to be over, the market is still in a much better place than it was a month ago.As the dust slowly settles, it’s time to check who gained – and lost – most.Note: the list includes only the most volatile cryptocurrencies with a market cap above $5m at press time.
The gainers
Gain : 217 per cent ($0.006004 to 0.019026)
Credits (here and elsewhere): Coinmarketcap.com
Gulden appeared in 2014 as a fork of Litecoin.It uses so-called PoW2 consensus protocol that supposedly reduces energy consumption by miners to just 0.01 per cent of that of Bitcoin.The original idea was that Gulden would become the national cryptocurrency of the Netherlands – but, judging from the current $10m market cap, it still has a long way to go.
Nevertheless, in the first three weeks of January GLD grew 3.34 times.This is 26 times lower than its all-time high valuation of $0.499114.Bitcoin SV (BSV)
Gain : 178 per cent ($96.7 to $268.67)
The pump of Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision became one of the most discussed crypto events of January 2020.It looked even more impressive at its peak, when the price rose to $422, making it the single most volatile crypto of January.It definitely looks like a pump, though on a very large scale – but who orchestrated it? Some point to Canadian gambling billionaire Calvin Ayre.According to an insightful Twitter user , he combined BCH mining with BSV washtrading – a genius scheme that catapulted BSV into the top five coins by market cap in just a few days.DASH
Gain : 151 per cent ($41.02 to $102.91)
Among the top 20 coins, DASH was the biggest winner in the rally – when all was said and done, it outdid even the dubious BSV.On Jan 15, DASH gained 40 per cent in one day, all the way to $148.2 – though it has lost most of those gains since.
One of the factors driving up the price of DASH could be the ongoing economic and political crisis in Venezuela, where people are using crypto to hedge against hyperinflation.In Venezuela, DASH is the most popular crypto after Bitcoin.
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Gain : 83 per cent ($4.49 to $8.21)
ETC partly owes its recent success to the general bull run, but there are two other reasons.First, Binance listed ETC futures , prompting a rally to $11.57.The price fell by almost 30 per cent since then, and ETC is now back in the second dozen of coins by market cap.
Second, the project recently activated its Agartha hard fork, which is supposed to improve the interoperability between Ethereum Classic and Ethereum.Zcoin (XZS)
Gain : 75 per cent ($2.98 to $5.21)
Zcoin is a privacy-focused currency founded in 2016.In December, Zcoin launched a crowdfunding system that is almost identical to the one used by Monero.
In early February, the project will become the first privacy coin to introduce so-called RAP addresses into its wallet – an implementation of the well-known Reusable Payment Codes (BIP47) idea.This gives XZS good grounds for growth, though 2020 can also bring a new crackdown on privacy cryptocurrencies.The losers
Loss: 61.5 per cent ($0.018577 to $0.007152) Why Capital.com?.
