This Week in Coins: Bitcoin Hits 18-Month High, Solana’s Market Cap Closes in on USDC
The crypto excitement doesn’t seem to end. Bitcoin (BTC), after cooling off last Friday, continued to rise—it reached an 18-month high on Thursday, crossing $37,000 per coin on optimism surrounding the potential approval of a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Bitcoin’s surge, likely caused by a note from Bloomberg Intelligence analysts stating that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission now has an eight-day window to approve applications for a Bitcoin ETF, had a positive impact on the rest of the market.
Over the past seven days, BTC is up nearly 8% and trading at $37,369, according to CoinGecko.
Several major altcoins also saw gains, with Solana (SOL) taking the lead and continuing its impressive rally. The coin was closing in on USD Coin’s (USDC) market cap and is now comfortably above $50 per coin, priced at $54.54—a more than 38% weekly rise.
SOL has been on a remarkable rally, up 150% in the past 30 days, which is unprecedented among other major coins and tokens. Experts believe this is due to a short squeeze caused by short sellers exiting their positions. Additionally, the blockchain’s speed and cost-effectiveness have attracted renewed interest from institutions.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also performed well, crossing the $2,000 mark for the first time since July and experiencing a weekly increase of over 14%.
Other altcoins that had been relatively quiet experienced a resurgence. Chainlink (LINK) saw a 33% rise in the past seven days, making it the second-best gainer after SOL among the top 20 coins and tokens. It is currently trading at $15.10 per token.
Chainlink’s rise is partly attributed to British telecoms company Vodafone’s Digital Asset Broker (DAB) announcing a rebrand and utilizing Chainlink’s network to enhance document transfer.
Sui (SUI) also experienced a quiet resurgence, with the blockchain’s token, launched last year by ex-Meta engineers, up over 36% in the past seven days, reaching $0.61.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
