Bitcoin Holds the Week's Major Gains as Other Altcoins Struggle

July 20: Bitcoin has split off from other top cryptocurrencies and shows markedly more resilience in holding on to gains secured in the major upswing that kicked off earlier this week.

Bitcoin is trading around $7,398, up a fraction of a percent over the 24 hour period to press time.

The leading cryptocurrency has been trading sideways as of early trading hours July 18, following an impressive uptick on July 16 that accelerated yet further July 17.

Bitcoin's weekly and monthly gains are in positive territory, at about half a percent and 20 percent respectively, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Ethereum's price performance has been less buoyant, with the top altcoin trading around $453 to press time, down 2.6 percent on the day.

While recent growth has secured a positive weekly percentage gain of around 5 percent, Ethereum's monthly performance is a little more than 3 percent in the negative, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Ripple has dropped roughly 4 percent on the day, trading at $0.46 to press time, according to CoinMarketCap.

Cardano has lost around 4 percent and is trading around $0.17 over the past 24 hours to press time.

Of the top 20 ranked coins on CoinMarketCap, Dash has seen a solid 5 percent growth over a 24 hour period, trading just above $274 to press time.

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is now at around $283 billion to press time, down from its intra-weekly high of about $299 billion.