Investing.com - The price of the digital currency bitcoin slipped lower on Sunday but was holding above the $13,000 level, while Ripple eased after a year-end rally that saw it surpass Ethereum to become the second largest digital currency after bitcoin.
Bitcoin was trading at $13,140.00 by 10:15 AM ET (15:15 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, after going as low as $12,787 earlier.
The digital currency had risen around twentyfold since the start of 2017, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,891 on 17 December on Bitfinex and to more than $20,000 on other exchanges.
However, it has posted heavy declines since, falling as low as $10,718 on December 22.
While bitcoin investors believe the decline was a natural correction after a breath-taking rise there have been warnings of an asset bubble from market regulators and central banks.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash was last at $2,323.5, while Bitcoin Gold was at $238.97.
Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading, Ripple was trading at $1.89 on the Poloniex exchange after touching a record high of $2.39 on Saturday.
Ripple's market cap rose more than 50% on Friday, to a record $85 billion. Its market value continued to climb over the weekend, peaking at over $100 billion, knocking Ethereum into third place after bitcoin, with a market cap of $72 billion.
Bitcoin’s market cap is roughly $220 billion.
Ripple rose in value by more than 19,600% over the course of 2017. It began the year trading at around $0.006 and ended at $1.97.
Ripple’s gains in 2017 outstripped the gains of Ethereum and bitcoin, which rose by roughly 9,000% and 1,400%, respectively.