Crypto market overview: Bitcoin glued to $6,600, XRP is the worst-performer of the day

• Cryptocurrency market is rangebound as bullish momentum has faded away.
• Bitcoin won’t replace gold any time soon, expert says.

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies settled in narrow ranges, signalling that the upside momentum faded away for now. The total value the market for digital assets reached $224, which is nearly four times lower than the all-time high of $828B.  

Bitcoin is trading marginally below $6,600 handle amid low trading activity. Ethereum has settled at $230, unchanged since this time on Monday. ETH/USD recovered from Monday’s low at $227, but the upside is still capped by $235 level. Ripple’s XRP is changing hands at $0.5702, down 4% day-on-day, which looks like a big movement as compared to the rest of the coins.

What’s going on

Some cryptocurrency fans believe that Bitcoin may replace gold as an investment safe heaven, but  Morningstar experts dispelled that myth. They explored the key features of virtual currencies and concluded that no such thing would ever happen.

“In order to assess the threat, we’ve created a framework to grade any asset class’s viability as a safe haven by focusing on liquidity, functional purpose, scarcity of supply, future demand certainty, and permanence. Through this framework, we conclude that cryptocurrency does not and will not challenge gold as a safe-haven asset class,” Kristoffer Inton from  Morningstar wrote.

The expert concluded that digital currencies lack a solid functional purpose due to low transaction speed. Bitcoin network can process about five transactions per  second while credit card operators like Visa and Mastercard process over 10,000 transactions per second.