Bitcoin Breaks $8,000 as Selected Alts See Slight Recovery

In the days following the strong upswing that kicked off across the crypto market on July 16 and accelerated further on July 17, Bitcoin has sustained positive momentum while other alts slid into negative territory.

Bitcoin is trading around $8,009 to press time, up 3.9 percent on the day.

Yesterday, BTC dominance by market capitalization in the crypto market reached its highest level yet in 2018, passing 46 percent, a threshold last seen December 20, 2017, when the coin was trading close to its industry highs of $20,000.

Ethereum is trading around $468 at press time, up 1.2 percent on the day.

Today, the altcoin has seen modest growth, reaching a 24-hour high of $472. Ethereum has lost just under 1 percent on the week, but is now up 4.77 percent on the month.

Litecoin is up over 3.5 percent on the day, trading at around $87, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin Cash is also up over 4.5 percent and is trading at $851 to press time.

Monero is up almost 4 percent and is trading around $140 at press time.

While many hold the view that crypto-based ETFs would be a "Holy grail" for the crypto industry, news that BlackRock may also be eyeing an entry into Bitcoin futures trading could prove more divisive, given suggestions from figures including Fundstrat's Tom Lee that Bitcoin's "Gut wrenching" price weakness this spring was tied to futures contract expirations.

This week, CME revealed that the average daily volume of Bitcoin futures on its platform increased by 93 percent in Q2 over Q1 in 2018, also indicating that the number of open contracts had exceeded 2,400 - a 58 percent increase over Q1..