What happened
Cryptocurrencies had a rough start to the week with some falling double digits today. The largest cryptocurrencies are down slightly, but smaller coins known as altcoins are magnifying those losses, as they often do.
As of 3:30 p.m. ET, the value of Speckle (CRYPTO:POINT), which was up as much as 5.6% over the past 24 hours, fell 3.9%. In the same period of time, Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) fell 2.1% after falling as much as 3.6%, phantom (CRYPTO:FTM) fell 4.9% after previously falling 8.9%, and Vicinity (CRYPTO: NAH) fell 4.8% after falling as much as 6.4%.
Image source: Getty Images.
so what
The big news that may be turning some investors away from altcoins today is the recent “unauthorized activity” on Crypto.com accounts. Current reports put the theft at around $15 million ether, which made headlines in the mainstream media.
Polkadot said the Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain Moonbeam is now live, which will allow developers to more easily launch projects on the Polkadot blockchain.
Solana had the busiest day announcing a $10 million investment round for decentralized finance protocol Hubble and news that the Metaplex Foundation had closed a $46 million investment round. JP Morgan even noted that Ethereum is losing market share in non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance applications to blockchains like Solana, which could help the smaller cryptocurrency this year.
Near Protocol was the only cryptocurrency to avoid the market’s huge sell-off in recent months, recently hitting all-time highs after expanding its ecosystem. However, prices appear to be pulling back with the broader market today, halting momentum.
What now
The big topic in the news is that altcoins are building real ecosystems and I think that is where their value lies. But that hasn’t helped today’s valuations, which have fallen across the board.
There are a number of reasons to be bullish on cryptocurrencies, but I think the biggest is the idea that crypto will offer real utility in finance, gaming, the metaverse, and other aspects of digital life. Blockchains like Solana, Fantom, Polkadot, and Near build these utilities, and it does so regardless of the price of the underlying cryptocurrency.
Volatility has simply become the norm in cryptocurrencies, especially in the altcoin space of cryptocurrencies. They tend to trade sharply up or down on any given day, and with money flowing from cryptocurrencies big and small, they’ve been hit hard lately. But if the benefits continue to come from the industry, the future looks bright.
This article represents the opinion of the author, who may disagree with the “official” endorsement position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. We are colourful! Challenging an investing thesis — including one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us be smarter, happier, and wealthier.
