Bitcoin price: can Ripple, Ethereum and bitcoin recover before Christmas?

Bitcoin and rival cryptocurrencies Ripple and Ethereum are slowly recovering after values once again fell to new lows over the weekend.

The price of a bitcoin dipped below the $3,200 (£2,535) mark on Saturday afternoon, before inching back up to almost $3,300 (£2,615) as of 9am this morning, according to figures from ranking site CoinMarketCap.

Ripple jumped from lows of $0.28 (£0.22) per coin on Saturday to $0.30 (£0.24) on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Ethereum slumped to $82.83 (£65.65) on Friday - a new record low for 2018 - but made significant gains over the weekend. As of this morning, the virtual currency was priced at almost $87 (£69).

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder of money transfer app Circle, told CNBC that the continuing downward trend of cryptocurrency values might be down to falling profits from mining - where powerful computers are used to unlock more virtual tokens.

However, Allaire insisted that bitcoin has “a very significant role to play” in the financial world, and that the growth of new virtual currencies using bitcoin’s blockchain - the technology that underpins the token - may bring back some of the investors who cashed out during 2018.

Bitcoin is “certainly going to worth a great deal more than it is today”, he added.

The digital currency and its rivals look unlikely to rally much before Christmas, though.

According to market news site FXStreet, cryptocurrency value analysis suggests that “the bottom is not reached yet” for bitcoin and that prices must continue to climb at a steady rate if further sell-offs are to be avoided.

FXStreet’s predictions have been echoed by cryptocurrency website Bitcoin Exchange Guide, which notes that the cryptocurrency market remains unstable.