The crypto market is steaming hot again - Bitcoin has just reached a new, spectacular all-time high of over $66,930, which made blockchain enthusiasts around the world enthusiastic and bullish. Like always, the success of BTC was also reflected in the altcoin market, and many alternative cryptocurrencies were able to make two-digit gains this week. Without further introduction, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting developments that happened in the blockchain ecosystem over the past 7 days!
Solana Finally Recovers, Becomes One of the Best-Performing Coins of the Week
The past couple weeks were not that great for Solana investors, since SOL was regularly one of the worst performers among all major crypto assets. Even the recent listing of Solana on the massively popular trading platform eToro wasn’t enough to alleviate the bearish price action of SOL.
Now, it seems like the tide has turned and that Solana is entering into a bullish phase again. This week, the SOL price has appreciated by 23.84%, which makes SOL one of the top 10 best performing major cryptocurrencies on the market.
While the rapid spike of the Solana price was mainly caused by Bitcoin’s new ATH, it’s worth noting that SOL has outperformed BTC as well - the original cryptocurrency has only grown by 8.75% over the past 7 days.
Many experts are convinced that the SOL price was suppressed for far too long, and that Bitcoin’s ATH came at the right moment to give Solana a much needed push upwards. But will the SOL price really keep growing as the Solana enthusiasts claim?
Cardano Does Badly, Ends the Week On Negative
Solana and Cardano are often seen as direct competitors, and this week ADA has been the definite loser of the battle between two coins aspiring to be “Ethereum killers”. Instead of growing in price, Cardano has decreased in value by 0.62% over the past week.
It’s worth noting that Cardano was losing value not only in relation to the US Dollar, but also to Bitcoin. The ADA/BTC price chart has been seeing a steady decline, and some technical analysts are predicting that Cardano's inability to outperform Bitcoin is a very bearish signal for the ADA price.
The current problems of Cardano seem to be mainly motivated by the massively underwhelming release of the Alonzo hard fork of the ADA network. The update which promised to turn Cardano into a DeFi powerhouse can now be clearly declared as a flop - so far, there are still no functional dApps utilizing ADA as their core layer.
The SHIB Chart Looks Bullish: Is Another Shiba Inu Breakout About to Happen?
At first sight, the past week was not that great for the most successful DOGE clone - Shiba Inu has decreased in price by 0.19%, while the original Dogecoin has grown in value by 5.20%. However, technical analysts looking at factors other than the spot price - such as the volume of SHIB transferred to and from exchanges - are pointing to a possible bullish breakout of Shiba Inu.
According to technical analysts, the sideways price action of SHIB combined with the steadily lowering volume suggest that SHIB is ready to spike soon and to continue its mission of replacing DOGE. Simply put, less and less people are willing to sell their SHIB tokens, while bulls seem to be just waiting for the right moment to buy more tokens.
Another bullish factor for Shiba Inu is the fact that the number of active SHIB wallets constantly keeps rising and has just recently reached a new all-time high - currently, over 742,000 people around the world own some SHIB.
It seems like the threat posed by SHIB to Dogecoin is becoming more and more serious. But of course, like with all meme cryptocurrencies, the situation can change dramatically within seconds because of a single tweet.
Whales Keep Buying More LINK - Will Chainlink Become the Next Favorite Crypto of Institutional Investors?
The LINK price has appreciated by 6.48% over the past 7 days, which might seem underwhelming compared to other coins and tokens that noted two-digit gains. However, many underlying factors suggest that Chainlink might be up for a massive bull run in the near future.
It seems that while many retailers were focused mainly on Bitcoin, a lot of huge investors and institutions were interested in accumulating more LINK instead. According to the on-chain analytics company Santiment, whales have recently purchased LINK tokens worth $431 million in total. But will the interest of whales be enough to make Chainlink enter the list of top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization again?