Bitcoin, Other Cryptos Tick Up After Earlier Losses — Barrons.com

By Elsa Ohlen and Anita HamiltonThe price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rose Tuesday afternoon after a roller-coaster ride over the past two days. Digital currencies had briefly traded sharply higher Sunday after President Donald Trump announced plans to create a strategic reserve of cryptos, before falling back down Monday.But they had begun to pare Monday's losses by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. Bitcoin is up 1.2% to $87,688 over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. It had previously jumped to $95,136 after Trump announced the crypto reserve on Sunday.Most cryptos popped Sunday in response to the news of a crypto reserve. But by late Tuesday afternoon, of the five cryptos singled out by Trump for inclusion in the strategic reserve — XRP, Cardano, Solana, Bitcoin, and Ethereum — only XRP and Cardano had held on to significant gains. The rest were trading around their pre- announcement prices.XRP, the digital coin used to facilitate and settle payments on the Ripple platform, rose 3% to $2.49, while Cardano rose 10% to 95 cents.Ethereum gained 0.4% to $2,175 and Solana rose 1.5% to $145.Before Tuesday's uptick, FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said, "sentiment in the cryptocurrency market has returned to extreme fear territory," noting that it was at its second-lowest level in more than 2 1/2 years. Only on Thursday was sentiment worse.Pressure in other markets has clipped the cryptocurrencies' wings, Kuptsikevich added. The tariffs the president had threatened against Mexico and Canada took effect Tuesday, sending markets lower.The Dow closed down 1.6%, erasing all its gains since the election. The Nasdaq Composite briefly slid into correction territory, before closing down 0.4%, and the S&P 500 fell 1.2%.Sunday's executive order to potentially include altcoins XRP, Solana, and Cardano in a U.S. crypto strategic reserve was also ill-received by the Bitcoin community, said Michael Terpin, CEO of Transform Ventures, a blockchain communications firm."While providing tax incentives to American crypto companies is a good idea, a strategic stockpile should only include the highest quality, truly decentralized digital asset: Bitcoin," Terpin said. "Adding secondary cryptos controlled by companies and foundations would be akin to adding gold mining and energy stocks to the strategic gold and oil reserves."Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] and Anita Hamilton at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.