Markets Recover as Ether Alternatives SOL and DOT Outperform Top Tokens

Cryptocurrency markets staged a slight recovery over the past week led by solana and polkadot, which both jumped about 20%

by David Canellis /

May 19, 2022 04:03 pm

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

Cryptocurrency’s total market capitalization has risen 5% in the last seven days to reach $1.27 trillion
Bitcoin dominance is now more than 45% — its highest point since October

Cryptocurrency markets have recovered 5% over the past week, led by ether (ETH) alternatives solana (SOL) and polkadot (DOT).

Both blockchains’ native tokens outperformed the top 10 by market capitalization (excluding stablecoins). SOL gained roughly 22% in the past seven days while DOT rose 19%.

In fact, half of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies jumped more than 10% — binance coin (BNB) by 15%; cardano by 13%; and XRP by 11%.

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Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH were also in the green, up around 7% and 6% respectively. The total crypto market is now valued at over $1.27 trillion, up from $1.20 trillion last Thursday.

Despite the gains made by top altcoins, bitcoin dominance (which measures how much of the cryptocurrency market is BTC) has once more surpassed 45% — its highest point since October when BTC was worth $61,000. At press time, BTC was changing hands for around $30,200. Ether has hovered around $2,000.

Other native tokens of crypto exchanges continue to stage impressive rallies alongside BNB. Platforms issue these tokens to reward holders. Seychelles-headquartered KuCoin’s (KCS) has done particularly well, up 42% over the past week, thanks to a hearty bounce on Wednesday.

KCS’s price had nearly halved over the past month, dropping from almost $21 to $11.28. It now trades for $15. Meanwhile, Singapore-based Crypto.com’s CRO token returned 15% in the past seven days.

Gains made by FTX’s FTT and OKCoin’s OKB were more modest at 6%. Huobi’s HT traded flat while Bitfinex’s Unus Sed Leo (LEO) bucked the trend and dropped 3%.

LEO is still up 30% year-to-date thanks to an advantageous seizure earlier this year of $3.6 billion BTC stolen from the platform in 2016. Cryptocurrency markets collectively lost 42% in that time.

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