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%

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • 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%. 

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.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Why that the bull market might not start until 2025

article-image

August’s annual headline figure came in at 2.3% after an upward revision Thursday, so things are moving in the right direction 

article-image

MSTR’s stock price was roughly $248 at 2 pm ET Thursday

article-image

Ever since rates came off zero and fiscal deficits exploded, markets have started paying close attention to how the government is funding itself

article-image

Solana memecoins are collectively at an all-time high

article-image

Optimistic rollups like Optimism, Arbitrum and Base are seeing rapid adoption relative to zk rollups