The cryptocurrency market has witnessed a significant surge since the beginning of 2024, with the total market capitalization surpassing $2 trillion for the first time in a considerable period.
Many analysts and industry experts anticipate even brighter prospects ahead, particularly with the upcoming Bitcoin halving scheduled for April, historically signaling major bull runs.
In light of this, let’s explore the top 5 cryptocurrencies (by market cap) closest to breaking their previous all-time highs:
Bitcoin (BTC):
BTC has had an exceptional year, especially in the last quarter of 2023, with its price now trading above $52K, marking a remarkable 17% increase in just the past week.
Over the past 30 days, BTC has surged by over 22%, with its yearly gains standing at a substantial 136%. Factors contributing to this surge include the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in January, alongside the anticipated Bitcoin halving in April.
Data indicates that BTC needs to rise by 32.10% to reach its previous high achieved on November 10th, 2021.
Bittensor (TAO):
TAO, powered by the Bittensor protocol, is trading at less than 2% below its all-time high at the time of writing, currently standing at $622.
Bittensor aims to enhance machine-learning platform development by decentralizing the process and establishing a peer-to-peer market for ML applications.
Stacks (STX):
Stacks, a veteran layer two for Bitcoin, boasts its native cryptocurrency, STX, which trades at $2.71. It sits approximately 25% below its all-time high of $3.39.
STX has demonstrated resilience in recent months, benefiting from increased activity on Bitcoin’s network, largely attributed to the Taproot upgrade.
Optimism (OP):
Optimism, an Ethereum layer two scaling solution, features its native token, OP, currently trading at $3.91, with its all-time high at $4.23. This places it slightly over 8% away from its peak.
The surge in ETH’s performance throughout 2024, fueled by heightened re-staking activity and anticipation of a spot ETH exchange-traded fund approval, has also positively impacted Optimism.
Kaspa (KAS):
Kaspa integrates proof-of-work with blockDAG architecture to accelerate block processing speed. Its native token, KAS, trades at $0.14, approximately 8.8% below its all-time high of slightly over $0.15 achieved on November 19th, 2023.