Altcoins drive the rally as Bitcoin plays catch-up
Market overview
The crypto market capitalisation has risen to $2.8T, its highest level since the end of January this year. Although Friday’s rally was followed by increased selling pressure, buyers have once again been dominating the cryptocurrency market since Sunday. As a result, by the start of active trading in Europe, market capitalisation was 6% higher than a week ago. Altcoins are once again the main driving force, following legislative initiatives by the SEC and CFTC. Their rise above May’s highs is a strong bullish signal of an uptrend. Over the past 24 hours, the top performers were NEAR Protocol (+24.4%), Avalanche (+14.5%) and The Graph (+10%), while the worst performers in our sample were Uniswap (-0.3%), Dash (+0.6%) and IOTA (+0.7%).
Bitcoin appears to be lagging so far, with a 5% gain for the week and a price of $81.6K. The price of the leading cryptocurrency has surpassed the key psychological level of $80K. Still, it has not yet technically broken through the resistance at the highs from early September and May. Last week closed above the 50-week MA, something that hasn’t happened since last November. The optimism surrounding altcoins is clearly boosting the bulls’ chances in BTC, but in this case, it is better not to get ahead of oneself by rushing to buy coins. In our view, this is already a bull market, but that does not rule out sudden pullbacks, so it is worth exercising heightened caution until clearer signals of a transition to active growth emerge.
News background
The Block attributes the market recovery, amongst other things, to ongoing regulatory actions against the backdrop of the delay to the CLARITY Act. On Thursday, the SEC authorised limited trading of tokenised shares on selected blockchain platforms for a period of five years. The following day, the CFTC submitted draft rules for cryptocurrency transactions and markets to the White House.
Cryptocurrency firm Grayscale has once again identified $58K as Bitcoin’s bottom in the current bear cycle and has given its clients the green light to invest in crypto assets.
Ethereum Institutional has backed the EIP-8198 Quick Slots proposal, which shifts from a fixed slot duration to a configurable parameter, making Ethereum an even more attractive foundation for financial markets.
Tokens from decentralised exchanges Uniswap (UNI) and Hyperliquid (HYPE) surged following the SEC’s decision to allow trading in tokenised shares on certain blockchain platforms. Such platforms may not be required to register as ‘exchanges’ under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Author
Alexander Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, has been with the company since its foundation. From time to time, he gives commentaries on radio and television. He publishes in major economic and socio-political media.
