Bitcoin Fails To Keep Above $40K, Ethereum, Dogecoin Struggle But These Minor Altcoins Are Charging Ahead

Major cryptocurrencies slipped into the red on Sunday night as the global cryptocurrency market cap declined 2.67% to $1.6 trillion.

What Happened: The apex cryptocurrency, Bitcoin BTC/USD, traded 4.92% lower at $39,649.78 over 24 hours at press time. For the week BTC was up 10.45%.

See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Ethereum ETH/USD traded 0.95% lower at $2,533.11 over 24 hours. Over a seven day trailing-period, ETH traded 13.57% higher.

Dogecoin DOGE/USD traded 3.79% lower at $0.20 over 24 hours. For the week the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency rose 0.87%.

DOGE traded 1.05% higher against BTC and 3.33% lower against ETH over 24 hours.

On Sunday evening, the top two gainers over 24 hours were Quant QNT/USD and Terra LUNA/USD.

QNT traded 37.79% higher at $189.92 over 24 hours and 95.87% for the week. LUNA rose 11.06% over 24 hours to $11.87 and traded 39.93% higher for the week.

The Graph GRT/USD was also among the gainers on Sunday rising 2.03% over 24 hours to $0.65. For the week GRT is up 16.48%.

Why It Matters: On Friday, Bitcoin touched $41,934.18, levels not seen since May. As the weekend draws to a close the apex coin is down 5.45% from those levels.

Lower liquidity during the summer and the $1 billion short squeeze were cited as reasons for BTC’s surge at the beginning of the weekend by FundStrat strategist David Grider, as per CoinDesk.

See Also: Why Does Bitcoin's Price Fluctuate? Crypto Expert Weighs In

The Senate held a rare session on Saturday in an effort to finalize the $550 billion infrastructure bill, which could spell higher taxes for cryptocurrency investors.

The bipartisan bill will be financed through unspent emergency relief funds, targeted corporate user fees, and “strengthening tax enforcement when it comes to crypto currencies,” as per the White House.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining difficulty was on the rise over the weekend, rising 6% on Saturday, the first such increase for miners since May when the BTC crash began.

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