When everyone thought that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would pass the Bitcoin spot ETF, leading to a repeat of the 'all coins rise' scene from 2021, reality dealt a heavy blow: aside from Bitcoin aiming for $100,000, many altcoins that shone in the last bull market not only failed to set new highs in this cycle but are still lingering at the bottom.
To some extent, this may also signify that as cryptocurrency investment gradually becomes mainstream in the U.S., new incoming funds will concentrate on quality targets, similar to the U.S. stock market. In this cycle, some tokens that peaked in the last bull market have again become favorites for profit seekers. I have compiled some tokens that reached new highs in this round after setting peak values in the 2021 bull market, but my understanding is limited and may not cover all such tokens.
$SOL
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In the 2021 boom of 'Alt L1', EVM-compatible L1s including Fantom, NEAR, and Avalanche absorbed traffic that overflowed due to high Ethereum Gas costs. Among them, Solana did not follow the trend but rebuilt an ecosystem outside of EVM, and with the support of SBF, the founder of FTX, who was at the top of his game then, the price of $SOL skyrocketed from less than $1 upon listing to over $200.
However, as the overall market transitioned from frenzy to calm and with the collapse of FTX, one of Solana's biggest supporters, SBF, was imprisoned, the price of $SOL fell to as low as around $7, and well-known NFT projects on Solana successively departed, leading many investors to believe that Solana's story might be coming to an end.
What surprised these people was that during this cycle, Solana rejuvenated with the rise of memes, coupled with the emergence of several ecological projects such as the re-staking project Jito, causing the price of $SOL to rise sharply, breaking through the nearly $260 high set in November 2021 about a week ago.
$BNB
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As the only public chain among 'exchange platform tokens' that has truly diversified its ecosystem, Binance's $BNB has made a lasting impression in both bear markets and bull markets. During the bear market of 2022, $BNB fell from its peak of around $660 in May 2021 to below $200 at one point. Although the decline was significant, compared to many tokens that fell over 90% or nearly to zero, $BNB can be considered a 'high-value asset'.
Subsequently, with the recovery of the market and Binance launching Launchpool and Launchpad projects at an almost frantic pace, $BNB also surged upward, breaking through the previous bull market price peak on June 24 this year, reaching over $700. Compared to the dismal exit of Huobi's HECO Network, $BNB still holds a lot of potential value worth further exploration both within the exchange and on the $BNB Chain.
$TRX
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The new high of Tron token $TRX in this cycle can be said to be an unexpected yet reasonable occurrence. The issuance of USDT has reached nearly 140 billion, and Tron has long been the preferred choice for USDT transfers. Although Ethereum has surpassed Tron in USDT issuance, and in practical application scenarios, Tron is obviously inferior to Ethereum, one must admit that at least in terms of capital flow, Tron remains the top choice for USDT holders.
According to DefiLlama data, as of the time of writing, the TVL on Tron is about $7.555 billion, and this data once exceeded $10 billion in March this year. The price of $TRX reached a peak of $0.18 on April 17, 2021, and three and a half years later, on November 12, $TRX reached a new high, subsequently rising above $0.22 in the following days.
$TON
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The emergence of $TON can be traced back to the ICO era, when Telegram raised $1.7 billion through an ICO for its token Grams, planning to launch The Open Network ($TON). However, a lawsuit from the SEC pressed the pause button on everything. This typical SEC-style lawsuit, which treats everything as a security, did not settle until 2020, and Telegram paid the price of not being able to continue the development of $TON.
After that, $TON continued to operate with the support of the community but never made significant waves in the industry. Its token price did not rise above the $4.4 peak set at the end of 2021 and continued to decline with the market.
By 2022, during the months from April to July, the $TON Foundation, along with several institutions, frequently launched ecological funds ranging from tens of millions to over a hundred million dollars, sounding the horn for the rapid expansion of the $TON ecosystem. As a blockchain under Telegram with tens of millions of users, $TON did not have to invest much effort into user growth; the games and interactive experiences it launched seamlessly integrated with Telegram, making its process from 0 to 1 very smooth, and the speed from 1 to 100 was astonishing.
With the market's heat, the price of $TON briefly surpassed $8 this June, nearly doubling from its previous 'mountaintop'.
$LEO
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To be honest, if I hadn't searched the data website, I wouldn’t have known about this token's existence. $LEO is a token issued by the long-established exchange Bitfinex, serving purposes including fee discounts. I haven't found convincing news about why this token reached a new high; the only possibility might be that the hacker who stole 120,000 Bitcoins from Bitfinex was sentenced, which could be seen as a positive factor to some extent.
$LEO briefly surpassed $8 in early February 2022, and a week ago on November 20, $LEO set a new high, even reaching nearly $9.
$FET
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Fetch.ai, born before the last bull market, has endured until today when AI has become the 'hot topic'. In the early days when the 'blockchain +' concept was in vogue, many related projects were established, but most of them have become dust in history by now. However, some projects, including Fetch.ai and IoTeX, have persisted and welcomed a true second spring.
In the first half of this year, SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol proposed the establishment of a super AI alliance and merged their tokens, and this plan has now been completed. The significant impact of AI on human social development is beyond doubt, but whether Crypto can truly drive this process still requires time for observation.
In early September 2021, $FET reached a peak of nearly $1.20, while this year, driven by the AI wave initiated by OpenAI, the price of FET soared to about $3.50, nearly doubling from the peak of the last bull market.
$OKB
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As one of the three giants of domestic exchanges, OKX has performed commendably in the past two years. On one hand, OKX has made a series of optimizations in trading-related functions and user experience, allowing traders to personalize their trading plans more effectively, prompting other exchanges to follow suit. On the other hand, the Web3 wallet launched by OKX could even be considered a phenomenal product, especially when inscriptions captured the attention of many treasure hunters.
As for the price of $OKB, it actually set a historical high as early as the beginning of last year, coinciding with the time when OKX was undergoing major reforms. In March this year, $OKB reached a historical high of nearly $74, over 70% higher than the peak of around $44 in early May 2021.
$STX
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Here, it must be noted that some projects whose token prices set new highs in this cycle are not the darlings of the last bull market but have existed for many years and have 'met their match' in this cycle.
Stacks is an early attempt in Web3 to utilize the Bitcoin network to establish a smart contract platform. Its design is quite interesting; in simple terms, Bitcoin holders bid with Bitcoin to earn block rewards and transaction fees for new Stacks blocks, while the blocks are packaged by $STX stakers. After the blocks are confirmed on-chain, they can receive the Bitcoin previously used for bidding. Since it also uploads state information to the Bitcoin network for final confirmation, Stacks can be seen as a sort of 'Bitcoin L2'.
The windfall brought by inscriptions has revived this project that has been cultivating in the Bitcoin ecosystem for many years, and the price of $STX surged to a high of about $3.85 in April this year, surpassing the previous peak of around $3.60 set in November 2021.
$INJ
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The Cosmos ecosystem is undoubtedly an indelible shadow in the minds of many investors, possessing a unique style and technical strength in the cross-chain industry akin to Polkadot, yet it has not sparked a trend similar to DeFi. From the token price information website, Injective also appears to be a project that emerged before the last bull market, but perhaps it wasn't until it secured $40 million in financing in August 2022 that it became known to most people.
From the perspective of investors and participants in the ecological fund it launched, including market makers and hedge funds, Injective seems to intend to establish a DeFi liquidity center. This plan is not unique and may seem unremarkable at first glance, but the price of $INJ has been rising steadily. In mid-March this year, the price of $INJ soared above $52, more than doubling compared to its peak of around $25 in April 2021.
$BGB
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If the price increases of $BNB and $OKB are 'reasonable', then Bitget's sudden emergence must have been beyond most people's expectations. From my perspective, it’s hard to imagine that in an industry already dominated by giants, there can still be new players making inroads, but Bitget has indeed achieved that. Aggressive market strategies, a crazy yet efficient culture, wallet products, and various investment supports indicate that Bitget must have planned comprehensively before officially launching the market competition, also seizing the residual heat from the last bull market and the opportunity as new users flock to Web3.
Compared to the tokens previously introduced that set new highs in 2021 and then followed the market down before reaching new highs again, $BGB has been in a climbing phase since its inception in 2021, recently setting a high of $1.70.
[Disclaimer] The market has risks; investment needs caution. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions herein align with their specific circumstances. Invest accordingly, at your own risk.
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Original author: Babywhale, Techub News
'Old altcoins rise again! 10 old projects have set new highs; what are the reasons for their return to peak?' This article was first published in 'Crypto City'
