As Bitcoin Hovers Around Its All-Time High, Traders Turn to Altcoins

Bitcoin (BTC) led the charge, with the top crypto pushing to new highs last month. Since hitting a wall just below $100,000, it’s a rotating selection of altcoins that are now benefiting from renewed investor interest.

Dogecoin pumped on the back of its Elon Musk connection and plans for a Department of Government Efficiency (yes, DOGE) that he will co-lead. The original meme coin surged to a three-year high price in late November and remains not far from that mark, bringing several other notable meme coins along for the ride.

Solana (SOL) has also pumped, pushing to a new all-time high mark of $263 in November, though it has since retraced to $235, CoinGecko data shows.

And Ethereum (ETH)—which famously lagged Bitcoin’s gains this year—finally got a leg up over the weekend, pushing to an eight-month high above $3,730.

But some of the biggest gainers of late have been surprise picks—tokens that hadn’t seen much upside in years, including some of the industry’s best-known coins.

XRP has been the most significant, with the asset used in Ripple’s payments ecosystem skyrocketing over the last few weeks, charting a more than 400% climb over the last 30 days.

The surge has been driven by growing optimism surrounding regulatory clarity and the potential introduction of spot exchange-traded funds and other financial products.

The enthusiasm has been further amplified by the announcement of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler's departure in January, following his leadership in the agency's multi-year case against Ripple Labs. XRP hit a seven-year high price on Monday, above $2.82

Tron (TRX) is also making a surprise surge, with the asset jumping to a new all-time high price on Tuesday. Much like XRP, Tron toppled a seven-year-old record from January 2018 and is now up 69% on the day at a price of nearly $0.37.

However, it’s not the only long-running cryptocurrency that’s capturing trading enthusiasm from this year’s last-minute run-up.

Hedera (HBAR) is the biggest gainer in the top 100 coins by market cap this week, up 137% in seven days. IOTA has nearly matched it with a 130% spike, with Algorand (ALGO) jumping 84% during the same span.

Other major gainers this week include Litecoin, Tezos, Chainlink, and EOS, while Cardano has spiked by 200% over the last month. Even metaverse gaming tokens like The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) are skyrocketing.

That’s right: the metaverse. It’s 2021 all over again. Or 2018, depending on which token you’re looking at.

Bitcoin remains in range of the vaunted $100,000 milestone after several close calls in recent weeks, stalling out at a peak of $99,645 on November 22 and currently sitting around $96,000.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair