Ethereum, Other Altcoins Outperform Bitcoin, As Apex Crypto Finds Footing Above $52,000

Bitcoin price (BTC) is trading 5.2% higher over 24 hours to press time at $52,254 late Wednesday. 

What’s Moving: When the world’s apex cryptocurrency shot above $51,000 late Tuesday it drained the momentum out of altcoins. As of press time, cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin have found their momentum as well. 

Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest virtual currency by market capitalization, traded 6.8% higher at $1,904.8. Among other smart contract platforms-based cryptocurrencies,  Cardano (ADA) is up 6.8% at $0.91 and Polkadot (DOT) is up 3.7% at $31.95.

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Litecoin (LTC), a fork of Bitcoin, is up 9.3% at $233.36. The Graph (GRT) has surged 15.4% to $2.28.

Binance Coin (BNB), which backs the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, is up 28% at $166.27. 

Dogecoin (DOGE) remains muted, down 4% at $0.05, following Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk’s calls for whales to divest.

Several DeFi cryptocurrencies are outperforming Bitcoin over 24 hours, with UniSwap (UNI) up 10.2% at $21.91, Aave (AAVE) up 13.2% at $462.22, and Terra up 17.4% at $7.21. 0x traded 6.78% higher at $1.61 and SushiSwap (SUSHI) is up 8.94% at $16.56.

The total value locked in DeFi projects continues to rise, standing at $41.8 billion at press time, as per data from DeFi Pulse.

Why It’s Moving: The momentum in the cryptocurrency market is continuing based on rising institutional investor interest — a factor that analysts have considered key to this rally that took off last July.

Cryptoquant  CEO Ki-Young Ju noted a positive Coinbase Premium trend — even as Bitcoin traded above $50,000 — as a signal that the rally is likely to continue.

Microstrategy Inc MSTR said Wednesday it was upping the target for its debt offering from $600 million to $900 million to fund its purchase of Bitcoin.

Financial website The Motley Fool announced it was purchasing $50 million worth of Bitcoin.

TradingAnalysis.com founder Todd Gordon told CNBC Wednesday that Bitcoin's next resistance level won't come until at about $170,000. Meanwhile, JPMorgan thinks the current Bitcoin price is "unsustainable."

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