$100 Billion Crypto Price Boom Sees These Coins Leave Bitcoin And Ethereum In The Dust

Bitcoin
BTC
and ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by a large margin, have rocketed higher this week—helping the combined crypto market add around $100 billion.

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The bitcoin price has added 12% this last week, with the ethereum price adding a similar amount as a predicted market earthquake shook up equity and crypto markets.

However, bitcoin’s and ethereum’s gains pale in comparison to the rallies seen by some smaller cryptocurrencies this week (including a viral, meme-based dogecoin challenger).

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The bitcoin price has surged this week along with the ethereum price—but some smaller … [+] cryptocurrencies have made far larger gains.

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“Investors are hoping the bear market is over with the start of the new calendar year,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, said in emailed comments.

Two major ethereum rivals, cardano and solana, have each leaped more than 20% since this time last week. Solana
SOL
, which had suffered in the aftermath of the FTX collapse due to its close links with founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has come back within touching distance of the crypto top ten, as measured by CoinMarketCap.

Further down the charts, another ethereum rival that emerged from the ashes of Facebook’s failed digital currency, aptos, has rocketed 30%, almost doubling its price in a week.

Gala
GALA
, a cryptocurrency linked to blockchain-based gaming platform Gala Games, more than doubled in price after the network’s developers announced via Twitter that Gala Games was partnering with Hollywood A-listers Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. The post was then deleted without explaination but gala has hung on to most of its gains—with a Gala Games representative telling Coindesk the rally was unrelated to the deleted announcement.

Lido DAO
DAO
, the native cryptocurrency of Lido Finance, has added 50% over the last seven days as traders bet it will be a beneficiary of ethereum’s upcoming Shanghai upgrade that will allow users to withdraw their staked ethereum. The upgrade, ethereum’s first major update since its long-awaited switch from bitcoin’s proof-of-work to the more energy-efficient proof-of-stake, is scheduled for March.

Avalanche’s avax has rocketed 35% after developer Ava Labs announced it would be offering crypto infrastructure through Amazon Web Services (AWS) with the aim of facilitating “enterprise, institutional, and government adoption of blockchain.”

The bitcoin price has rocketed higher this week, breaking its long-running losing streak and helping … [+] the price of ethereum and other smaller cryptocurrencies to rally.

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Despite the bitcoin, ethereum and broader crypto price rally, market watchers are still nervous there could be more volatility ahead.

“Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have been trading in a tight range for the better part of a month,” Michael Safai at Dexterity Capital said in an emailed note.

“Cooling inflation and a slower news cycle are enabling cryptocurrencies to break some of that correlation to equities and the global macro that drove prices in 2022. Any recovery will continue to be a long, slow march and the sensitivity to headline risk remains. It’s likely, however, that we still have a couple of big shakeouts left in crypto, with some bankruptcy messes that have to be sorted and other firms still fighting to stay solvent. This will have a bigger impact on prices over the next couple of months.”