Ether has resumed the pole position behind Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency rankings, with most of the top 50 altcoins looking at a midweek crash by January 10th. Total market cap for all digital currencies is down nearly $100bn from January 7th\'s record high of $800bn, with only ETH and BCH showing positive balances in the top 10. Ether had gone up around 12.5% on January 10th to an average price of $1350 at time of writing, while Bitcoin Cash is up over 5% to over $2,500. 

The big losers in the second week of January are Ripple\'s XRP, sometimes called the \"cryptocurrency of banking.\" XRP has gone down by almost 17% over the last 24 hours, after its unprecedented growth in late December and early January. In the first week of the new year, Ripple was trading at over $3, according to CoinMarketCap data, but then three of the biggest South Korean exchanges were taken out of the equation. This adjustment registered an apparent drop in price of 30%, causing a panic which has perhaps instigated further losses.

 Least affected in the price drop were Dash (down around 2.75%), moving back into 10th position, and Litecoin, which dropped a relatively low 3.4% and is currently selling at $238. Market leader in the rankings, Bitcoin, is still dropping (some 4.74%) after its spectacular performance in December.