Altcoins launched a strong recovery as BTC briefly crossed $97,000 on Thursday. Data also indicated a move into the green region among many of the top 100 cryptocurrencies in the past 24 hours.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price hovers around $94,960 after it corrected below $96,000. While the price is over 1% more than yesterday’s, it is still 2% down over the past 7 days. Bitcoin’s trading volume has also dropped by around 16%, reaching a little over $70 billion.
Despite the recovery seen by altcoins, the coins have not been able to keep up with BTC’s price pump this month. While several coins have seen a price pump this month, most have not managed to break the all-time highs they set in 2021.
Altcoins like Stellar (XLM) are among the biggest gainers of the week, with Santiment pointing out a 105% price boost in the past seven days. The coin is still down over 7% at the time of writing, hitting $0.4763.
Santiment expressed concern about the increasing euphoria related to XLM’s price and its rank as a top trending token over the past few days.
The report suggested the increased FOMO for the asset due to retailers jumping on the opportunity to invest. Santiment also explained the possibility of a top forming with the increased interest in Stellar. The crypto insights platform further revealed that the current FOMO does not necessarily mean that the coin’s uptick is short-term.
Other notable mentions among the top 100 coins with the greatest gains in the past 7 days include Celestia, which gained over 73%; Sandbox’s SAND, which gained over 77%; Lido DAO’s LDO, which gained over 52%; and Fantom, which gained over 51%. Some coins have also recorded over 40% gains in the past 7 days, including UNI, SEI, OP, and DOT.
Bitcoin’s recent rally to $100k was temporarily cut short by a losing streak of four consecutive days. The dip saw Bitcoin plummet by nearly 10% from an all-time high of $99,800 to $90,742. However, the market appears to have partially recovered.
Bitcoin’s recent performance happened amid intensifying discussions on who will lead the top U.S. regulatory agencies when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office on January 20th.
A number of candidates who have come forward to vie for the top positions of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have showcased their support for the digital asset ecosystem aligning with Trump’s overall plan to foster industry growth.
Trump promised to remove the current U.S. SEC chair, Gary Gensler, on his first day in office. Gensler’s approach to crypto regulations has largely been offensive and uncertain. The executive recently announced his resignation, effective in January when Trump’s administration takes over.
Rumors on the internet reveal that Trump’s team may be considering former U.S. SEC commissioner Paul Atkins as the next U.S. SEC chair. Atkins has a strong reputation for initiating deregulation and is reportedly being vetted as a possible replacement for outgoing U.S. SEC chair Gary Gensler.
On the other hand, most or all potential contenders vie to head the derivatives regulator CFTC, which would likely be friendly toward the crypto market.
The digital asset ecosystem has witnessed a major market cap surge of about $1 trillion since Trump emerged victorious in the U.S. presidential elections held on November 5th. Trump’s victory fueled institutional interests in Bitcoin as an investment vehicle, a store of value, and a hedge against inflation.
According to data from the ETF tracking website SosoValue, Spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have witnessed cumulative inflows worth about $7 billion since November 6th, 2024. The funds cumulatively hold $104.32 billion worth of Bitcoin, equivalent to 5.46% of the asset’s market capitalization.
Still on Crypto, U.S. MetaMask users can buy cryptocurrency directly with Venmo via the MetaMask app or browser extension. The new feature brings the crypto offering closer to the masses by allowing users to link their Venmo accounts as a payment option.
Venmo has recently started crypto transactions directly using Moonpay. It allows users to send, receive, and manage cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or PayPal USD (PYUSD) in the app.
For quite some time now MetaMask has been a leading Ethereum wallet for decentralized finance. However, purchasing crypto was often confusing to new users.
MetaMask simplifies the process for beginners who are used to the easy-to-use platform of Venmo, with the ability to solely make purchases on MetaMask through the use of Venmo.
Venmo gives you access to more than 80 million active users. MetaMask is reaching a wider group by allowing these users to fund their MetaMask wallets from both their Venmo balances and their linked bank accounts.
This will help to increase crypto adoption among regular users who might have been afraid of using completely different crypto exchanges up till now.