Written by: Andrew Hayward
Translation: Vernacular Blockchain
Last month, Donald Trump successfully won re-election to the White House and promised to implement a more crypto-friendly regulatory policy, which opened the floodgates for the market, leading to soaring cryptocurrency prices.
Bitcoin (BTC) took the lead, reaching a new high last month. However, after being blocked near the $100,000 mark, investor interest began to shift to a series of alternating-performing altcoins.
1. Dogecoin Leads the Meme Coin Race
Dogecoin (DOGE) surged due to its association with Elon Musk and plans to jointly lead an agency called the 'Department of Government Efficiency' (yes, the acronym happens to be DOGE). This original meme coin soared to its highest price in three years in late November and remains close to that level, also boosting the rally of several other well-known meme coins.
2. Altcoins Shine
According to CoinGecko, Solana (SOL) set an all-time high of $263 in November, before pulling back to $235.
And Ethereum (ETH), although its gains this year have lagged significantly behind Bitcoin, finally broke through last weekend, climbing to an eight-month high, surpassing $3730.
However, the biggest recent gains have come from some unexpected choices—tokens that have had little room for appreciation over the years, including some well-known veteran coins in the industry.
XRP has been particularly eye-catching, as this asset widely used in the Ripple payment ecosystem surged dramatically in the past few weeks, rising over 400% in 30 days.
This surge is mainly attributed to market optimism regarding regulatory clarity, as well as expectations for the potential launch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other financial products.
This wave of enthusiasm was further boosted by the announcement that Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, would leave office in January next year. During his tenure, the SEC's long-standing lawsuit against Ripple Labs was closely watched. As a result of this news, XRP soared to a seven-year high of over $2.82 on Monday.
3. Unexpected Winners: Tron and Other Veteran Tokens
Tron (TRX) has also unexpectedly risen, reaching an all-time high on Tuesday. Similar to XRP, Tron broke a seven-year record since January 2018, soaring 69% on that day, with a price close to $0.37.
However, in this wave of market activity at the end of the year, it's not just these older cryptocurrencies that are attracting trading enthusiasm.
Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) became the biggest winner among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization this week, surging 137% in seven days. IOTA's performance was also impressive, with a rise of 130%, while Algorand (ALGO) increased by 84% during the same period.
Other major cryptocurrencies that have risen sharply this week include Litecoin, Tezos, Chainlink, and EOS, while Cardano has skyrocketed by 200% in the past month.
4. Metaverse Tokens Make a Comeback
Even metaverse game tokens, such as The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA), have surged significantly.
Indeed, this is the metaverse. It's as if we're back in 2021, or depending on the tokens you're following, even a replica of 2018.
5. Summary
Bitcoin continues to hover on the path to the $100,000 mark. After several unsuccessful attempts, Bitcoin peaked at $99,645 on November 22 and is currently priced around $96,000.
