Altcoin Market Cap Jumps 10%, Is It Time For Alts to Finally Pick Up?

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While Bitcoin (BTC) has been grabbing all the limelight over the last 48 hours, it is time to shift the attention to the Altcoin market. At press time, the altcoin space is seeing massive investors rush as Ethereum (ETH) leads the rally with an over 10% surge at press time. In the last 48 hours, the altcoin market cap has also surged 10% moving swiftly from $141 billion to above $155 billion. Almost all of the top-ten altcoins are showing gains between 4-13% as of writing this article.

Courtesy: CoinMarketCap

Market analysts have already been suggesting that after a massive BTC rally over the last week, the altcoins will take over the show. Probably, it will be the period of Bitcoin (BTC) cool-off followed by a major rally in altcoin space. It means that the market might repeat the showdown similar to December 2017.

The Altcoin Market Cap Breakout

Charts are indicating that the altcoin market cap breakout has already happened above $149 billion. The altcoin market cap has already added $6 billion post the breakout while looking at a massive rally forward.

Ethereum (ETH) remains the top performer in the current altcoin market rally. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is giving tough competition to Bitcoin (BTC) with weekly gains above 15%. At press time, ETH is trading at a price of $442 with its market cap above $50 billion. Also, the ETH/BTC correlation (orange line in the below chart) shows that Ethereum has been moving in tandem with Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

However, Ethereum has clearly outclassed Bitcoin in terms of year-to-date gains. While BTC gains have moved above 1005, the ETH YTD gains have extended above 200%.

The recent rally in ETH price also comes after chief developer Afri Schoedon recently announced the launch of Ethereum 2.0 deposit contracts. As per the current timeline, the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain will go live by December 1 kicking off the smart contracts staking rewards.

Apart from Ethereum, all other altcoins are showing stellar gains. XRP has surged 6.79%, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) 4.39%, Chainlink (LINK) 11.65%, Litecoin (LTC) 11.69%, Polkadot (DOT) 9.90%, and Cardano (ADA) 12.86%.

Some of the technical indicators have already been hinting that Bitcoin has entered the overbought regions. Thus, there is every possibility that after a mega rally in BTC, we can see a short-term cooldown. As BTC shares an inverse relation with the altcoin market, the altcoin rally is likely to continue further.

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Bhushan Akolkar

Bhushan is a seasoned crypto writer with over eight years of experience spanning more than 10,000 contributions across multiple platforms like CoinGape, CoinSpeaker, Bitcoinist, Crypto News Flash, and others. Being a Fintech enthusiast, he loves reporting across Crypto, Blockchain, DeFi, Global Macros with a keen understanding in financial markets. 

He is committed to continuous learning and stays motivated by sharing the knowledge he acquires. In his free time, Bhushan enjoys reading thriller fiction novels and occasionally explores his culinary skills. Bhushan has a bachelors degree in electronics engineering, however, his interest in finance and economics drives him to crypto and blockchain.

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