Solana continues to outperform other cryptocurrencies, with a surge of 17% that propelled its price past $100. In comparison, Bitcoin struggled to maintain momentum as it remained below the $44K mark.
While most altcoins traded quietly during the Christmas Eve, Solana stood out by surpassing Binance Coin (BNB) as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency. The native token of Solana, SOL, has been leading the recent price rally among altcoins, experiencing a 55% surge in the past week and a 16% increase on a daily scale. It reached a price of over $110, marking the highest point in nearly two years.
Several other altcoins also saw impressive daily gains, including Polkadot (DOT) with 8%, Uniswap (UNI) with 5.5%, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) with 11%, Opium (OP) with 10%, and Injective (INJ) with 5%. On the other hand, major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), BNB, Tron (TRX), Chainlink (LINK), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC), and TON Crystal (TON) either had minor gains or insignificant losses.
Looking at the weekly scale, most of the previously mentioned altcoins experienced significant price surges, with SOL, NEAR, OP, and INJ leading the pack with around 50% increases. As a result, the total cryptocurrency market cap has grown by $80 billion over the past seven days and now stands above $1.650 trillion on CoinMarketCap.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin faced resistance in surpassing the $44K level, as it was rejected after coming close. The cryptocurrency had a slow start to the week, dipping to $40,500 for the first time in several days. However, it began its recovery on Tuesday, gaining over $3,000 in two days and briefly crossing $44,000. Since then, BTC has been trading sideways within a range of $43,000 to $44,000. Today, it made another attempt to break through $44,000 but fell short by a few inches, currently sitting $500 below it.
The impressive gains from various altcoins have impacted Bitcoin’s dominance in the market, which has fallen to 51% on CoinMarketCap. Nonetheless, Bitcoin retains its market cap above $850 billion.