By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
While Bitcoin tops the $50,000 milestone with strong bullish momentum, altcoins are not far behind. Interestingly, so far in 2021, the altcoin market has outperformed Bitcoin with a staggering 150% surge in the altcoin market cap.
The overall crypto market cap has hit an important milestone moving past $1.5 trillion for the very first time. It has been a phenomenal rise for the overall cryptocurrency market so far in 2021. The crypto market cap has nearly doubled in the span of the last 45 days registering ~100% gain.
This market rally comes backed by a strong Bitcoin rally as well as the show of strength by the altcoin market. On the other hand, the DeFi market has registered over 400% growth so far in 2021.
Just a few hours back, the world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) momentarily surpassed $50,000 levels. At press time, BTC is trading 4.57% up at a price of $48,992 with a market cap of $911 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) alone dominates 60% of the overall cryptocurrency market cap. However. its market dominance has reduced from over 65% at the start of the year. Thanks to the strong altcoin rally with Ethereum leading the show.
After some consolidation below $40,000, BTC has been breaking new record highs after Elon Musk‘s Tesla announced a $1.5 billion BTC purchase last week on February 8. Well, this was enough for Bitcoin bulls to rage in once again. Soon after the announcement, Bitcoin registered the largest ever candle spike, now popular as the ‘Elon Candle’.
Looking at the current bullish activity in Bitcoin, even miners have eased off selling in recent times. The recent weekly report from Glassnode states:
“After a period of increased miner distribution during the rally and subsequent consolidation throughout January, miners have actually eased off their sell pressure this week. This suggests that miners have either completed adequate sales to cover costs, or could also mean they see Tesla’s vote of confidence as fair reason to keep a strong grip on their treasuries”.
Altcoin Market Pose Strong Rally that Pushes Crypto Market Cap Higher
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) has been strongly leading the altcoin market rally. The altcoin market has outgrown Bitcoin (BTC) performance so far in 2021. While the Bitcoin (BTC) price is up 66% year-to-date, the altcoin market has registered a staggering 150% growth YTD. The altcoin market cap has surged from $230 billion at the beginning of 2021, to now at $581 billion.
As said Ethereum (ETH) has added more than $1000 to its price in the last 45-days, also registering 150% growth. The launch of CME Ether futures and solid institutional participation has been the reason behind it. Also, over the last two weeks, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) has added nearly 200,000 ETH coins pouring over $200 million in fresh purchases.
🧑💻 #Bitcoin continues to range between $45k and $49k these past five days. And while #altcoin markets heat up, $BTC's development activity has quietly risen to 2-month high levels. On-chain volume is also dropping, as traders chase volatility in #alts. https://t.co/wnVMNJH4jr pic.twitter.com/KsvI2RE2fV
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 15, 2021
Other top-ten altcoins like Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Binance Coin (BNB), Dogecoin (DOGE) have comfortably registered over 125% in 2021. The overall cryptocurrency market rally is nothing short of being unprecedented.