Bitcoin Slumps 4%, Falling Below $70K; Solana Outperforms

Crypto
markets
experienced
a
burst
of
downside
volatility
Thursday
with
bitcoin

(BTC)
tumbling
over
6%
at
one
point
to
below
$69,000.
Repeating
what’s
now
a
familiar
pattern,
buyers
quickly
stepped
in,
with
prices
rebounding
to
$70,500
by
press
time.

The
largest
crypto
by
market
capitalization
earlier
Thursday
hit
a
new
record
high
just
below
$74,000,
but
started
to
decline
at
around
the
beginning
of
the
U.S.
trading
session.
The
move
accelerated
in
afternoon
hours
to
as
low
as
$68,600
before
the
dip-buying
began.

Major
altcoins
ether

(ETH),
ripple

(XRP),
matic

(MATIC)
and
avax

(AVAX)
also
lost
5%-7%
before
retracing
some
of
the
losses.

Solana’s
native
token

(SOL)
showed
relative
strength
amid
the
market
slump,
notching
its
highest
price
in
26
months
before
the
pullback.
Still,
SOL
was
slightly
up
3%
through
the
day,
making
it
one
of
the
best-performing
assets
in
the

CoinDesk
20
Index.
which
dropped
4%.

Digital
asset
hedge
fund
QCP
Capital
said
in
a
Thursday
market
update
that
SOL
has
benefitted
from
capital
rotation
as
bitcoin’s
rally
seemingly
ran
to
a
halt.

Multiple
analysts
noted
that
BTC
could
enter
a
period
of
consolidation,
even
with
a

potential
20%
correction
in
the
cards,
as
the
momentum
that
propelled
to
fresh
record-highs
in
the
past
two
weeks
started
to
wane.

Read
more:



Beware
of
Bitcoin’s
‘Rising
Wedge,’
Chart
Analyst
Says

Crypto
traders
forecasted
more
gains
for
SOL
targeting
its
all-time
record
prices
from
2021,
breaking
above
its
last
key
resistance
level
after
cooling
off
for
two
months.

Digital
asset
trader
Jelle
also
noted
that
SOL
is
also
benefiting
from
rising
retail
demand
for
trading
Solana-based
tokens
such
as

dogwifhat
(WIF),
one
of
the
meme
coins
that
recently
saw

eye-watering
advances.
“SOL
has
broken
all
major
levels
standing
in
the
way
of
new
all-time
highs,”
Jelle
said
in
an

X
post.
“New
retail
will
flock
to
solana
tokens,
and
buying
SOL
is
their
entry
ticket.”

Tristan
Frizza,
founder
and
CEO
of
Solana-based
decentralized
finance
(DeFi)
protocol
Zeta
Markets,
noted

increased
network
activity
on
Solana,
with
decentralized
exchanges
(DEX)
consistently
surpassing
$2
billion
in
daily
volume
since
early
March.

“[Solana’s]
solid
adoption
metrics,
which
signal
genuine
user
activity,
suggest
that
we’re
not
only
witnessing
speculative
interest
but
are
also
poised
to
see
new
all-time
highs
due
to
this
authentic
engagement,”
Frizza
said
in
an
email.

Recently,
SOL
changed
hands
at
$165,
some
35%
lower
than
its
2021
November
peak.
Its
market
capitalization,
however,
is
already
approaching
its
$76
billion
record
due
to
the
asset’s
expanding
supply,
also
called
token
inflation.