First Mover: Bitcoin 'Comatose' Under $16K for Rest of 2020, While Ether Traffic Eases

Oct 8, 2020 at 12:54 UTCUpdated Oct 8, 2020 at 13:12 UTC.A slowdown in cryptocurrency trading on so-called decentralized exchanges has helped to alleviate congestion on the Ethereum blockchain, at least temporarily mitigating concerns the network was becoming overloaded.

The trading lull comes as prices tumble for many of the hottest tokens from the fast-growing arena of decentralized finance, or DeFi.

SushiSwap's SUSHI token, one of this year's splashiest debuts , fell by 77% in the past 30 days, while DeFi lender Compound's COMP tokens lost 37%.On Uniswap, the biggest decentralized exchange, or DEX, daily trading volumes have crashed to $224 million, versus a record high of $954 million on Sept. 1."Low volatility in the crypto market as a whole has contributed to lower transaction volume and costs," said Connor Abendschein, a crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data.DeFi, a subsector of the cryptocurrency industry where entrepreneurs are developing semi-automated trading and lending platforms atop blockchain networks, had surged in popularity in recent months among investors and traders alike.

Bitcoin remains comatose around $10,600 even though optimism has returned to equity markets.

The top cryptocurrency is currently trading around $10,600, down 0.6% on the day.

While the cryptocurrency remains stuck in a narrowing price range for the third week, activity in options listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has picked up the pace.

CME options trading volume surged by 300% to $48 million on Wednesday.

These traders foresee a bitcoin price rally but believe the upside will be capped near $16,000 till the end of this year and $20,000 in the fist quarter of 2021.- Omkar Godbole.

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