Crypto Today: Ether turns positive above $400, bitcoin stays in red below $10K

• ETH/USD recovers modestly in the NA session.
• Bitcoin remains on track to close the second straight day lower.
• Total market cap drops $60 billion in the last two days.

Following a record-setting rally earlier this week, the BTC/USD pair started to correct its massive gains and lost around $2600 in the last 48 hours. As of writing, the pair was trading at $9500, dropping 3% on the day. The pair's extremely overbought conditions and increasing concerns over a price bubble seem to have triggered a profit-taking action. In fact, according to Google Trends, based on the number of searches, bitcoin is now half as popular than it was a day ago.

In the meantime, the ETH/USD pair, which slumped below the $400 handle as it pulled away more than $100 from its all-time peak, staged a technical recovery in the US afternoon and was last seen trading at $422, where it was virtually unchanged on the day.

The total market capitalization of all digital currencies reflects the diminishing interest as well. According to the latest available data on coinmarketcap.com, the current market cap sits at $298 billion, which was $345 billion on Tuesday, with bitcoin dominating with 56%.

“Without the backing of a central bank asset and institutional support, it is not clear how a private digital currency at the center of a large-scale payment system would behave, or whether the payment system would be able to function, in times of stress,” Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles said at a conference at the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday. "Digital currencies are a niche product that sometimes garners large headlines. But from the standpoint of analysis, the ‘currency’ or asset at the center of some of these systems is not backed by other secure assets, has no intrinsic value, is not the liability of a regulated banking institution, and in leading cases, is not the liability of any institution at all,” Quarles further added.