Bitcoin surged beyond $78,000 yesterday for the first time since early February, but was stopped there and now sits about two grand below its local peak.
The altcoins posted impressive gains as well yesterday, but most have erased them over the past 6 hours. In contrast, RAVE, SIREN, M, and DEXE have skyrocketed by double digits.
BTC Stopped at $78.4K
The primary cryptocurrency started the business week on the right foot, surging to almost $75,000 on Monday and up to $76,000 on Tuesday after reports that the US and Iran will reengage in negotiations to permanently end the war. This came after the weekend’s dip to $70,500 following the failure of the initial peace talks.
The next few days were choppy, as bitcoin remained in a range between $73,300 and $75,600, posting a few volatile moves between the two boundaries. The bulls returned to the scene on Friday when US President Trump and Iran’s foreign minister announced that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened.
BTC reacted with an immediate surge that drove it to over $77,000. It kept climbing in the following hours to a 10-week peak of $78,400 after Trump made a few more claims about de-escalating the war. Since then, though, Iran has denied many of Trump’s statements, which led to a $2,000 retracement to well below $77,000 as of now.
Nevertheless, BTC’s market cap has increased to over $1.530 trillion as of now, while its dominance over the alts continues to sit above 57%.
BTCUSD April 18. Source: TradingView
Double-Digit Gainers
RaveDAO’s native token continues with its massive surge, rocketing by another 40% in the past day to almost $25. It has entered the top 20 alts by market cap after a spectacular 9,700% (yes, indeed) in the past month.
M, DEXE, and SIREN follow suit in terms of double-digit gains today, while JUST and ENA have increased by almost 10%.
Ethereum was stopped at $2,400, while XRP was rejected at $1.50. BNB is back to $635, while SOL and DOGE are slightly in the red from the larger caps.
The total crypto market cap exploded by over $100 billion from bottom to top, but it’s now down to just under $2.7 trillion on CG.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview April 18. Source: QuantifyCrypto
