Despite the massive volatility BTC faced for several days last week, the cryptocurrency has stalled once again at a familiar price level of around $26,000.
Most altcoins also sit quietly today, aside from Rocket Pool, Synthetix, and Stellar, all of which are up by double digits.
BTC Back at $26K
The primary cryptocurrency had traded sideways at around $26,000 for a long time until last Tuesday when Grayscale’s legal win over the US Securities and Exchange Commission rattled all cages.
Bitcoin, fueled by the potential of turning GBTC into a spot BTC ETF, skyrocketed by over two grand in hours and charted a multi-week peak above $28,000.
While the community was preparing to see the SEC crumble, the agency made a somewhat expected move and delayed the decision on all spot BTC ETF applications for another 45 days. This, alongside the declining hype over Grayscale’s victory, led to a massive price retracement.
Bitcoin plummeted by nearly $3,000 in the span of two days and dumped to an 11-week low of $25,350. Nevertheless, it managed to bounce off, recover several hundred dollars, and has since traded at around $26,000, as it did seven days ago.
Its market capitalization has settled at $505 billion, and so has its dominance over the alts at 48.4%.
XLM on the Rise
Most altcoins have painted insignificant gains over the past 24 hours. Ethereum, Binance Coin, Ripple, Cardano, Solana, Tron, TONCOIN, Polkadot, Polygon, and Litecoin are also slightly in the green, with SOL jumping the most (2%).
In contrast, the two largest meme coins – Dogecoin and Shiba Inu – are with minor losses. LEO, HBAR, and MKR have dumped the most from the larger-cap alts.
In contrast, Stellar’s XLM has jumped by approximately 10% and trades well above $0.12. Further gains are evident from the likes of Rocket Pool and Synthetix – both of which are up by double digits as well.
The total crypto market cap has regained slightly less than $10 billion in a day and sits inches above $1.050 trillion on CMC.