Bitcoin is still consolidating with no clear direction in sight, but some alternative cryptocurrencies like Chainlink’s LINK token and Aave’s LEND are soaring.
- Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, is trading near $9,240 at press time, representing moderate losses on a 24-hour basis.
- The cryptocurrency has spent a better part of the last two months trading the narrow range of $9,000–$10,000.
- The prolonged consolidation has pushed a key volatility metric to its lowest level since November 2018.
- A big move could happen soon, possibly on the higher side, as on-chain data is painting a bullish picture.
- The seven-day moving average of the number of active bitcoin addresses has risen to a 2.5-year high of 478,669, as per data source Glassnode, likely indicating increased demand for the cryptocurrency.
- The percentage of bitcoin that hasn’t moved in a year also jumped to a new record high of 62.12% on Tuesday – a sign of strong investor confidence in the cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects.
Chainlink
- LINK, an Ethereum ERC-20 standard token used to pay for services on the decentralized oracle network Chainlink, has risen by over 10% in the past 24 hours.
- LINK is now trading above $8.15, up 78% on a month-to-date basis and up 364% for 2020.
- The token seems to be benefiting from the buzz around decentralized finance (DeFi).
- LINK’s trading volume has now surpassed that of Ethereum’s ether token to become the third-most traded cryptocurrency in the last 24 hours, as per Messari.
- With LINK’s price rising by over 300% this year, all 168,160 addresses currently holding the token are “in-the-money” or making a profit on their investments, according to IntoTheBlock, a blockchain intelligence company.
Aave
- LEND token, the native cryptocurrency of the decentralized lending platform Aave, and decentralized technology platform Ontology’s ONT token have also gained over 10% in the past 24 hours.
- Aave’s LEND token has increased by over 1200% so far this year due to a rapid increase in usage since the launch of mainnet in January.
- As reported Monday, altcoins in general are performing well while bitcoin languishes.
- The FTX exchange’s index of 50 low-capitalization cryptocurrencies, the so-called Shitcoin Index, is up 111% so far this year.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.