During the bullish run of 2017, the price of altcoins did not approach their all-time high. Cryptocurrencies like XRP, BCH, LTC, and DASH are still more than 70% below their maximum prices.
Bitcoin’s price momentum is bringing it closer to its all-time high (ATH), but the same does not seem to happen to the major altcoins in the market. After exceeding USD 19,000 in recent days, Bitcoin is just over 3% of its all-time price. However, the cryptocurrencies that follow are still far from their maximum prices.
According to data from CoinGecko, most of the principal altcoins that reached their peak shortly after Bitcoin did in late 2017 are more than 70% off their respective all-time high.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH), DASH, NEO and Nem (XEM) are the most notable cases, with more than 90% of their maximum prices. In the four cases, the all-time high occurred between December 2017, and January 2018, coinciding with BTC’s historical bullish run.
The case of Ripple (XRP) is also striking. In the last few days, the price of the cryptocurrency has doubled, with an increase of more than 110%. However, that was not enough to approach its all-time high of USD 3.4. It is currently more than 80% below that level.
The list continues to grow, with other cryptocurrencies that are between 70% and 80% below their all-time high. These include Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Stellar Lumens (XLM), EOS, and even Dogecoin (DOGE), the cryptocurrency that started as a meme and was worth USD 0.017 in January 2018.
Some Altcoins Are Closer to Their All-Time Prices
Among the major altcoins during the bullish run of 2017, the one closest to its all-time high is Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency. In recent days, ETH broke the USD 600 barrier, and its price currently places it at almost 60% of its all-time high above USD 1,400.
In the case of ETH, its advantage over other altcoins seems to be close to the long-awaited version 2.0 of Ethereum. Phase 0 of this upgrade will take place on December 1st, after meeting the target amount of ETH sent to the smart contract of the new network to comprise the validator nodes.
Other cryptocurrencies in the top 20 according to their capitalization are closer to their all-time high. All of them are cryptocurrencies that did not exist during the bullish run of 2017. For example, Polkadot (DOT) and Binance Coin (BNB), are 16% and 18% off their highs of a few months ago, respectively.
The cryptocurrency market has historically followed the trends of BTC. Even though cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin have risen this year, they have not done so with the same momentum.
According to a report from Glassnode, the profits against the US dollar of the main altcoins in the market were not reflected against BTC. XRP, among others, had lost more than 12% to Bitcoin so far this year.
By Alexander Salazar
