Alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, have started initially to record large gains throughout the board. Some small-cap coins have seen triple-digit percentage gains in recent weeks. But several larger-cap cryptocurrencies are also posting serious gains such as for example VeChain (VET), Stellar (XLM), Cardano (ADA) and Chainlink (LINK).
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Cryptocurrency market performance in the past 1 week. Source: Coin360
Top ten top performers in the crypto market in yesteryear week
In the past week, VET, XLM, ADA, ALGO, LINK, BSV, ATOM, XRP, CRO and AND SO ON outperformed other market including Bitcoin, which gained just 1.13% during the period.
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The chart below illustrates the greatest gainers of the past 7 days for cryptocurrencies with market capitalization of $700 million or more.
Top 10 crypto assets previously week. Source: Cointelegraph, Coin360
Since March, both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) recorded gains of over 150%, reportedly fueled by way of a surge in retail demand as well as institutions. Following the strong recovery of the most notable two crypto-assets, the momentum of many altcoins began to increase, particularly following Bitcoin halving in mid-May.
VET ranked because the third-best performing crypto asset of the week. Some speculate that the participation of the VeChain team at an important conference may indicate an item announcement. Others believe the rally derives from the anticipation of a potential Coinbase listing.
On June 11, Coinbase said that it is reviewing VeChain along side 19 other cryptocurrencies. Mentioning VeChain, the exchange said:
“Today we’re announcing that we are exploring the addition of a range of new assets. As part of the exploratory process customers may see public-facing APIs and other signs that we are conducting engineering work to potentially support these assets.”
Stellar and Cardano are set to see major protocol updates, with Cardano’s hard fork scheduled to activate on July 30. The hype around protocol upgrades and new product releases have buoyed the sentiment around top cryptocurrencies in recent weeks.
Other crypto assets, like Chainlink, as an example, have recently surpassed their record highs after a strong month in June. The interest around LINK increased after it entered a cost discovery phase. Price discovery is a technical term for when a secured asset surpasses its all-time high into uncharted territory.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin — fueled by a spike in interest among TikTok users — was the most effective performing cryptocurrency among coins with market cap below $700 million. It achieved a two-year high, prompting the @Dogecoin Twitter account to warn users also to “be smart” with regards to the fear of missing out (FOMO) trend.
Why altcoins are seemingly starting to see positive sentiment
Generally, the strengthening sentiment around altcoins seems to are based on two facets. First, ETH has been performing strongly against the U.S. dollar. Historically, ETH rallies coincided with altcoin uptrends. In the last four months, the price tag on ETH increased from $90 to $241, by not quite 270%.
Second, most top cryptocurrencies have completed the first phase of key network upgrades. Cardano, for example, is on the right track to finalize the Shelley upgrade by the end of July. The Shelley upgrade could decentralize the Cardano blockchain network by a factor of 100 times a lot more than competing blockchains, the foundation says.
Cardano.org’s statement reads:
“Come the end of the Shelley era, we expect Cardano to be 50-100 times more decentralized than other large blockchain networks, with the incentives scheme designed to reach equilibrium around 1,000 stake pools.”
The improving sentiment around top 20 cryptocurrencies, initially fueled by imminent blockchain updates, could have kickstarted an altcoin bull run.
DeFi and staking-related cryptocurrencies also have performed strongly since early July. Cosmos, Kyber Network and Compound, for example, recorded large gains of above 20% contrary to the U.S. dollar.