Weekend Watch: After Volatile Week BTC at $42K, LINK Explodes 13%

After the enhanced fluctuations in the past several days, bitcoin finally calmed around $42,000. The situation with the altcoin is quite similar, except for Chainlink. LINK surged by 13% and trades above $26.

Bitcoin Sits Still at $42K

It’s safe to say that the past few days didn’t go well for the primary cryptocurrency. On January 5th, it traded at $47,000 after failing to overcome $48,000 despite numerous attempts.

This is where the landscape changed rapidly for the worse. Bitcoin started to lose value vigorously and dropped by $4,000 in hours, as reported on Thursday. BTC stayed there for a while, but another initiative from the bears drove it to $41,000 yesterday.

This became its lowest price point since late September. After that, BTC fluctuated a bit more, leading to $500 million worth of liquidations on a 24-hour scale.

As of now, the asset has recovered some ground and stands around $42,000, and its market capitalization is just shy of $800 billion.

Chainlink Steals the Show

The alternative coins mimicked bitcoin’s performance in the past few days with enhanced volatility and substantial price drops. Ethereum, for example, traded above $3,800 just a few days ago but dipped to $3,100 yesterday. The second-largest crypto now sits above $3,200 after a minor daily increase.

More minor gains come from Binance Coin, Cardano, Polkadot, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, MATIC, and others. XRP has increased by 2.5%, while Solana is up by 4%, despite the recent network issues.

Nevertheless, Chainlink is the most impressive performer. A 13% increase has driven LINK to well above $26. Moreover, the asset is among the few in the green on a weekly scale, as it has increased by 35% in this timeframe.

ICP (15%), Dash (13%), Secret (10%), Zcash (10%), and Celo (9%) have also recorded impressive daily gains.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization is down by $250 billion in the past few days and sits around $2 trillion now.