Altcoins press onward

Bitcoin is flat, a city sidewalk. Ethereum's bustling, dressed in holiday style. Overall crypto gains are modest, buoyed mainly by Solana and Cardano. In their ecosystems, there’s a feeling of Christmas.

Each project saw their native assets spike by double digits on a percentage basis relative to yesterday morning. Meanwhile, there are memecoins tied to this busy pair of Ethereum rivals – and in the air there's childlike giddiness for these assets, too.

Per Coin Gecko, the total global market capitalization for all tracked cryptocurrencies (11,000+) now stands at $1.69 trillion. That all-in total has increased by 2.5% in the past 24 hours, as of 7:15 a.m. (EST). The last time crypto’s total market cap touched $1.7T was during the first week of May 2022.

With its market cap of roughly $850 billion, BTC accounts for right around half (50.2%) of the total. ETH's market cap is about $285 billion, reflecting a second-place dominance level of 17%.

ETH gained 5.9% in the past 24 hours. It's closing in on $2,400, a mark that also has not been spied in some 78 weeks. ETH last tasted $3K in April of 2022.

BTC gained 1.1% in the past 24 hours. It barreled from below $40K to above $44K in about 72 hours earlier in the week. Since Wednesday, though, the largest crypto now stalks a windless path between $43,200 and $43,700.

Among Big Ten digital assets, SOL and ADA are far and away the top performers. SOL, sixth-largest crypto with a market cap of $31 billion, spiked 14% in 24 hours. SOL could be on route to $90, says at least one analyst.

SOL sat just above $73 when we checked the charts at 7:23 a.m. (EST).  

We also just now looked in on the Solana-run memecoin, BONK, and it is indeed going out of its mind, soaring 37% in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Kamino, a fast-growing DeFi platform that runs on Solana, is said to be gearing up for airdrop.

And then there is Cardano likewise soaking up springtime vibes permeating the early winter.

Cardano's native ADA – with a market cap of $18 billion, it is CoinGecko's ninth-largest coin – has just crossed the crucial fifty cent mark on a 24-hour gain of nearly 20% as of this morning. The Cardano-based memecoin, SNEK, is reportedly scorching along at the moment as well. It changes hands on a relatively light basis. But there are reports that SNEK's market cap has risen to $50 million following a 170% spike over the past week in which crypto at large has been riding high.

"These meme-inspired coins on different blockchains have rallied impressively, attracting retail investors seeking the next Dogecoin or Shiba Inu," CryptoPotato said.

On Wednesday, ORDI, native token of the Ordinals protocol, reached a new all-time high of $68.37, triple its price level of just one week ago.

By Thursday night, ORDI had given back 28% of this week's gains. When we checked it early Friday morning, the token was barely holding on to its new-found $50 handle.

Minting miniature NFTs on the Bitcoin network via Ordinal Inscriptions became a sensation for the better part of 2023 but then the trend flamed out in October only to reignite in recent weeks.

More than 48 million Ordinals assets have been inscribed since the protocol’s inception back in January, said Dune Analytics. An estimated $147 million in Ordinals-related fees have been forked over to the Bitcoin network as a result of this activity.

ORDI had shed 7.5% in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, gaming token BEAM (87th-largest crypto) early yesterday cut a laser-like path to its ATH of $0.01722544.

As of this morning, BEAM had shed 10% from that pinnacle. It too has roughly tripled in the past 30 days.

Avalanche's native AVAX in the past one month has doubled to $26 and vaulted into the ranks of the Big Ten.

As an alternative layer-1 blockchain, Avalanche, along with Solana and Cardano, has been enjoying a kind of "catch up move," relative to the major duo of ETH and BTC, Blockworks said.

Avalanche is cooking up its own brand of hype across its entire ecosystem. For example, a private subnet of Avalanche was recently tapped by JP Morgan Onyx for a much-heralded test pilot demonstrating the potential for tokenized investment portfolios.

In the wake of BTC's recent bender – surging 15% in three days through Wednesday – several altcoins, including AVAX, saw a vigorous bounce after speculators pivoted and threw up a fresh volley of jump shots.

AVAX spiked by as much as 17% in one 24-hour juncture Tuesday night into Wednesday afternoon.

Avalanche is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol known for its transactional speed and panoply of DeFi offerings.

Trader Joe (not to be confused with supermarket chain Trader Joe’s) is Avalanche’s DEX. Benqi, which also runs on the network, is a lending platform (and not to be confused with Benji, the adorable little mutt featured in a series of movies circa the mid-1970s). The Trader Joe and Benqi platforms each boast more than $1 billion in total value locked (TVL).

Avalanche creator Ava Labs also supports metaverse investments, as CoinDesk explained, on the vision that "a fast and cheap network could support blockchain-based games and virtual worlds."

Avalanche garnered unwanted headlines this past February when Platypus Finance, an Avalanche-run stablecoin swapping platform, was exploited for $9 million via a “flash loan" attack. French police arrested two brothers, one of whom was charged with the unauthorized transfer of funds, while the other brother stood accused of receiving ill-gotten gains. A few days ago, the court acquitted both brothers, who all along insisted they were simply “white hats” in search of a bug bounty.

In something a landmark ruling for DeFi, the judge dismissed the charges pertaining to the "accessing an automated data processing system" by pointing out, per NewsBTC, that the individuals simply interacted with a smart contract that gave “more than it had to give.”