Key takeaways:
- Virtually all coins in the crypto top 100 by market capitalization have been trading in the green zone over the last 24 hours
- AVAX, LUNA, and SOL were the largest gainers among major crypto assets
- Altcoins are gaining ground on Bitcoin as BTC dominance falls below 40%
Over the course of the last 24 hours, the cryptocurrency markets have been experiencing strong bullish action, which led to an almost 5% increase in the total market capitalization value and caused virtually all digital assets in the top 100 to trade in the green zone.
While Bitcoin recorded modest gains of less than 3%, several major altcoins enjoyed high double-digit upswings. Ethereum, the biggest altcoin of them all, has shown commendable performance today, gaining 7.5% and breaking $4,000 after trading below the psychological barrier for the last three days. The altcoin rise led to a drop in Bitcoin market dominance and pushed the ratio below 40% from mid-October highs of 47.8%.
Native support for USDC pulls AVAX well beyond $100 and into the crypto Top 10
Avalanche (AVAX) has weathered the recent market pullback better than most digital assets in the crypto marketplace. Granted, the price of AVAX has plunged nearly 50% from its mid-November peak of $146, but the booming Layer 1 ecosystem quickly rebounded and is currently trading back above the $100 mark. The last 24 hours have been especially significant for AVAX – it managed to overtake Polkadot and Dogecoin by market cap and enter the cryptocurrency top 10 on a $26 billion valuation.
The recent rally was driven by Circle’s announcement of native support for USD Coin (USDC) on Avalanche. The news came less than a month after the largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), received native support on the platform. The inclusion of two of the most popular stablecoins will help the growing decentralized finance (DeFi) platform increase liquidity and allow for better utilization of its suite of decentralized applications and protocols.
Major institutional investments fuel Solana rally
Earlier today, Solana (SOL) reached a cycle high of $188 after growing by 15% in the span of the last 24 hours. Just three days prior, SOL was exchanging hands at nearly $150 level, a two-month low, and there was no end in sight for the prolonged downswing the fifth-largest blockchain found itself in.
Thankfully, things can change quickly in crypto. On Wednesday, the investment arm of Solana Labs announced a new $150 million fund to back early-stage crypto gaming projects building on Solana. On the same day, investment giant Galaxy Digital announced it would launch a crypto fund for Solana. Favorable news sparked positive market sentiment, which contributed to Solana gaining more than 20% in the span of the last 48 hours.
LUNA tops its excellent monthly performance by growing by an additional 15%
Earlier in the article, we’ve mentioned that AVAX managed to withstand the recent market pullback relatively unscathed. This claim holds even more true for Terra (LUNA). While most crytpo assets lost double digits in the past month, LUNA managed to grow by an additional 37% in the same time period and is currently trailing only the duo of blockchain gaming tokens GALA and SAND as the third most successful crypto of the last 30 days in terms of price movement.
The Web 3.0 e-commerce platform received a healthy price boost after Kraken, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, announced support for LUNA token starting with December 16. According to a blockchain analytics firm Delphi Digital, “Upcoming launches of Astroport and Mars Protocol,” and LUNA burning mechanics were among the primary reasons for a stellar performance over the last month.
