In the world of cryptocurrency, anticipation is building as numerous experts confidently predict that the crypto market is poised to enter a bullish cycle. Following a challenging bear phase at the beginning of the year, signs of recovery have emerged, bolstered by improving macroeconomic conditions.
Notably, the increasing interest from institutional investors in crypto assets is adding further fuel to the growing optimism.
Bolstered by improved market sentiment, 4 altcoins staged impressive price surges on Friday, including XDC Network (XDC) Stellar (XLM), Chainlink (LINK), and Maker (MKR). Notably, all 4 cryptocurrencies witnessed double-digit gains on the day, leading the top 100 digital assets by market capitalization in daily gains.
XDC Network (XDC)
XDC, a penny crypto asset trading below the $0.1 mark, soared sharply on Friday after the blockchain network announced the launch of Chain IDE – a cloud-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for creating decentralized applications to deploy on blockchains.
The rollout of this feature suggests there could be significant updates for XDC Network on the way, resulting in growing optimism around the project.
At press time, XDC was changing hands at $0.04, up more than 17% in the past 24 hours.
Over the past week, the crypto asset rallied more than 25%, similar to what it gained on monthly charts.
Stellar (XLM)
One altcoin that continuously demonstrated bullish momentum over recent weeks is XLM, the native token of the payment blockchain network Stellar.
Apart from the broader market optimism, one specific factor that primarily fueled XLM’s recent gains is Ripple Labs’ recent legal triumph against the US Securities and Exchange (SEC). Particularly, a US court ruled last week that Ripple did not violate securities regulations by selling XRP on public exchanges.
The ruling was naturally warmly welcomed by XRP investors, but also by the XLM community, given that the latter cryptocurrency has similar objectives and underlying technology.
At the time of publication, the price of XLM stood at $0.16, after rallying over 18% on the day.
On the weekly chart, XLM’s gains stand at around 4.7% and more than 88.3% on a monthly basis.
Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink, the largest blockchain oracle, saw the price of its native token LINK spike considerably on July 21, driven by robust whale activity.
Specifically, on July 20, two crypto whales swapped 3,146 staked ethereum (stETH) and ethereum (ETH) tokens worth $5.72 million to buy 788,877 LINK tokens, on-chain data showed. Interestingly, the two investors with different wallet addresses evidently moved together to execute a gigantic token swap.
The purchase, which was executed at an average LINK price of $7.25, ignited speculation and interest among Chainlink fans.
LINK stood at $8.16 at the time of publication, surging more than 17.4% on the day.
The cryptocurrency rose more than 15% in the past 30 days, and over 51% on the month.
Meanwhile, the popular crypto community over on CoinMarketCap, with historical accuracy of 95% for Chainlink predictions, expects the crypto token to lose more than $1 of its value and end the month at $7.04.
Maker (MKR)
MKR, the governance crypto token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol, was also among the top 4 best performers in terms of daily gains on July 21.
Its exceptional jump of more than 16% can be primarily attributed to the recent efforts by venture capital (VC) giants Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and CMS Holdings.
Namely, a16z deposited a considerable number of MKR tokens to Coinbase, with likely plans to sell the assets, according to Lookonchain.
Similarly, private investment firm CMS Holdings was seen slashing its MKR holdings. However, prior to the token’s surge, the VC investor deposited roughly $614,000 worth of MKR to Binance.
MKR was trading at $1,155 at press time, up 16.02% in the past 24 hours.
The cryptocurrency soared over 26% over the past week, while its monthly gains stand above 57%.
Conclusion
Interestingly, the remarkable double-digit price surges in XLM, LINK, XDC, and MKR come amidst the Bitcoin (BTC) price dropping below $30,000. This intriguing correlation indicates a growing investor appetite for altcoins ahead of an upcoming altcoin season.
As the cryptocurrency market evolves, altcoins are garnering increased attention, offering a potential diversification opportunity for investors seeking to capitalize on the broader crypto landscape.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
