Bitcoin Price, XRP Drop. Why the Altcoin Rally Is Under Threat. — Barrons.com

By Adam Clark

Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies were falling on Thursday. The surge in altcoins appears to be fading fast.

Bitcoin was down 0.3% over the past 24 hours early on Thursday, at around $118,030, falling from its 24-hour high of above $119,000. The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a record high of $123,166 last week amid excitement over crypto-related legislation championed by the Trump administration.

However, the bigger price moves were in altcoins, with Ether dropping 3.5%, XRP falling 12%, and Solana down 8.3%. Memecoin Dogecoin was down 13%.

A pullback was potentially in the cards after Ether more than doubled in the past three months and XRP rose 38% over the same period, both outstripping gains for Bitcoin.

"Bitcoin has moved from the lower to the upper limit of the $116-120K trading range and has again rolled back to its center. This dynamic confirms the market consolidation pattern. However, this inability to grow further is now affecting altcoins, where upward movement has similarly stalled," wrote Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FXPro, in a research note.

One factor affecting altcoins could be doubts over the timeline for approval of exchange-traded funds holding cryptos that aren't Bitcoin or Ether. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday gave approval to convert a Bitwise cryptocurrency index fund into an ETF but then immediately paused the conversion pending a review.

That indicates regulators might still be wary of allowing funds primarily holding XRP or other smaller cryptos to become ETFs, despite the Trump administration's relatively pro-crypto stance.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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