Bitcoin flat, Solana rises, Polygon, BNB lead decliners

The level of Bitcoin dominance is near 50 per cent, which is the highest since April 2021

Bitcoin and Ether were little changed on Wednesday morning in Asia, while the rest of the top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed. Bitcoin dropped back below $31k, but its dominance in total crypto market capitalisation is increasing, an indication of market recovery. Solana continued to gain this week, while Polygon’s Matic and the BNB tokens led the daily decliners.

Bitcoin shed 1.0 per cent over the last 24 hours to $30,801 in Hong Kong, reducing its weekly gain to 0.39 per cent, according to data from CoinMarketCap. On Tuesday, bitcoin’s price hit $31,371, its highest since June last year, on the back of optimism about spot Bitcoin ETF applications by several Wall Street heavyweights, including Blackrock.

The level of Bitcoin dominance is near 50 per cent, which is the highest since April 2021. Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro, says this price upturn in Bitcoin is a typical market recovery pattern in which the most noteworthy asset in the sector draws buyers first.

It will probably take around a year of Bitcoin price recovery before crypto enthusiasts start looking for one with higher risk, pushing altcoins upwards and leading to a new wave of capitalisation swell, he added. Kuptsikevich said that he does not see altcoins rallying before November.

A number of other U.S.-based asset managers, like Fidelity Investments and WisdomTree, have filed their own Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, indicating mainstream finance acknowledges the Bitcoin opportunity and wants to provide clients the access to its price movements without actually owning the token.

Ether seemed to surpass $2k this week, but dropped 0.81 per cent to $1,941 today after rising 2.64 per cent for the past seven days.

The other top cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap were mixed to flat, with Solana leading advancers with a 2.0 per cent gain to $19.45. The token has soared 15.35 per cent during the last week.

Polygon’s Matic and Binance’s BNB token were amongst the decliners — Matic shed 1.99 per cent to $0.6981, though it is still 4.29 per cent higher for the week. BNB slid 1.68 per cent to $242.83, reducing its weekly gain to 1.81 per cent.