This week has seen notable volatility in the cryptocurrency market, with many assets trending downward or remaining flat. However, several altcoins, including XRP, Avalanche, Mantle, and Aster, have defied the bearish trend by recording gains despite a broader environment of negative exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows.
Aster, a relatively new addition to the market as a perpetual futures decentralized exchange on the Binance Chain, has experienced significant movement, witnessing a 20% increase in price within the last 24 hours. This surge follows a notable investment by YouTube personality Mr. Beast, who purchased $114,000 worth of Aster over the weekend, showcasing the potential for this token to gain traction among investors.
In parallel, the Ethereum layer-2 network Mantle has also experienced a commendable rise, climbing 9% over the past day to a trading value of $1.79 and reaching a market capitalization of $5.9 billion, positioning it as the 37th largest cryptocurrency according to CoinGecko.
Avalanche recorded an 8.9% gain for the day and a 13.7% increase over the past week, raising its market capitalization to $14.5 billion. This upward shift in price follows an announcement from a Bitcoin mining company regarding its rebranding to AVAX One and its subsequent $550 million acquisition of Avalanche tokens for its digital asset treasury.
On the trading front, CoinGlass data revealed that Avalanche achieved a trading volume of $4.29 billion on Monday, with inflows of $6.67 million entering spot markets and an impressive $80.44 million flowing into futures markets on the same day.
Ripple’s native token XRP showed a modest increase of about 0.5% despite dropping below the $3.00 mark last Friday. It has been testing its 100-day moving average and has recently moved towards the $2.85 level, where horizontal support coincides with this moving average. Market observers note that the $2.7 zone is critical, as a defense here could rejuvenate bullish sentiment, potentially pushing XRP back up to $3.
Interestingly, over the past 24 hours, wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP have increased their aggregate balances from 6.74 billion to 6.77 billion, reflecting a net gain of about 30 million XRP, as reported by analyst Ali Martinez.
In contrast to the gains witnessed by certain altcoins, ETFs related to Bitcoin and Ethereum faced substantial outflows earlier this week. Investors withdrew a combined total of $439 million from these funds, reversing much of the previous weeks’ inflows as the market adjusted to the Federal Reserve’s recent policy announcements. Ethereum funds were particularly hard-hit, with redemptions totaling $76 million, including notable outflows from Fidelity’s FETH and Bitwise’s ETHW.
Following the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates by 25 basis points, Bitcoin experienced an initial surge, reaching a price of $118,000. However, this upward momentum proved short-lived, as it slipped back down to around $115,200 shortly thereafter. On Tuesday, Bitcoin fell to a two-week low at approximately $111,600, though it did recover slightly to trade near $113,000.
The recent volatility has led to significant liquidations, with over $354 million in positions liquidated within a single day, including $44 million linked to Bitcoin and $53 million related to Ethereum. Data from analytics firm Santiment revealed that traders on Binance were engaging in higher levels of short bets prior to the latest downturn. As sentiment shifted, positions moved to a mildly long status as traders sought to capture potential profits from a market rebound.
Analysts indicate that for a more substantial recovery, a period where short positions outweigh long ones may be necessary, as the liquidation of bearish bets could propel upward momentum in the market.
