Bitcoin Stopped Ahead of $17K, Solana Taps 10-Day High (Market Watch)

Bitcoin tried to challenge $17,000 hours ago but was stopped before having the chance to come close, at least for now.

The altcoins have calmed since yesterday’s impressive gains, except for Solana, which continues to recover its recent losses and LDO.

Bitcoin Came Close to $17K

The end of 2022 was untypically calm for the primary cryptocurrency, which remained around $16,500 after losing a few hundred dollars throughout the week.

Although the first day of the new year brought a similar lack of volatility, the landscape started to change yesterday. Amid some quite promising predictions for 2023, BTC added almost 2% of value and tapped a 5-day high of just over $16,750.

The asset went slightly higher hours later but was stopped before having the chance to challenge $17,000. As such, it stays on familiar ground now.

Its market capitalization has remained inches above $320 billion, while its dominance over the alternative coins is just shy of 40%.

SOL Keeps Pumping

Solana became one of the most affected victims of the FTX-Alameda crash, given its relationship with the former SBF-led crypto empire. The past few days of 2022 were violent as well, with SOL dumping to $8 for the first time in about a month.

Despite the unfavorable price performances, though, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin had some positive comments for Solana at the time. Since then, the asset has outperformed the rest of the market and now trades close to $12. This means SOL has increased by roughly 50% in days.

Lido’s native cryptocurrency is another impressive gainer now, following the protocol’s surpassing of MakerDAO as the leading DeFi project in terms of TVL. LDO has jumped by 7% and sits close to $1.25.

Terra Classic (LUNC) is up by over 5% in the past 24 hours, nearing $0.0002.

The larger-cap alts have stalled since yesterday’s gains, with ETH standing at just over $1,200 and Binance Coin trading close to $250.

The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has remained above $800 billion.