Despite retracing slightly since yesterday’s peak at almost $46,000, the primary cryptocurrency has managed to defend the $45,000 level.
Most altcoins have slipped hard today, including yesterday’s top gainers – Solana, Avalanche, and MATIC.
Bitcoin had a quiet last week of 2023, in which it stood mainly in a tight range between $42,000 and $43,000. All eyes are on 2024 now, given the overall bullish sentiment and the start of the new year didn’t disappoint.
BTC entered 2024 at approximately $42,500, stood still for several hours on Monday, but went on the offensive hard as the first day of the new year was coming to an end. It went even further on Tuesday, though.
In fact, the cryptocurrency’s price soared by more than three grand by Tuesday and went just inches away from $46,000 to mark its highest level in almost two years.
While the community was preparing for another leg-up, though, the asset started retracing slightly and briefly slipped below $45,000. As of now, it stands above that level, with a market capitalization of $890 billion and a 51% dominance over the altcoins. Recall that the metric had dumped to 49.5% last week.
Most altcoins followed BTC on the way up yesterday, with Solana and Avalanche emerging as the top gainers. Now, though, both these assets have retraced the most from the larger caps. SOL is down by 6% and has slipped below $110, while AVAX (-5%) is close to breaking beneath $40.
Polygon, Toncoin, Chainlink, Cardano, Polkadot, Dogecoin, and Ethereum are also in the red but in a more modest fashion.
Binance Coin, on the other hand, is up by almost 4% and stands around $330. ICP has stolen the show once again, with a 14% surge. As a result, the asset has reclaimed the $15 level.
The total crypto market cap has lost around $30 billion since yesterday’s peak and is down to $1.740 trillion.
