logged another week of positive gains in what has been a strong start to 2023. Prior to a late-Friday surge, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization had risen 10.15% and 9.92% respectively, and 25% and 28% year to date.
On a relative basis, BTC and ETH’s seven-day performance landed them near the top of the leaderboard for the first time this year. Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, BTC’s performance was third among the group. ETH ranked fourth. The leaders on the week were Solana , and Polkadot , which rose 24% and 10.7%, respectively. The biggest laggards were Litecoin and Monero , which fell 0.57% and 0.64%, respectively.
The dispersion between best and worst performance has narrowed significantly over the past 30 days. Where on Dec. 16 the poorest performing assets logged seven-day losses in excess of 15%, this week’s laggard was essentially flat.Crypto markets were trading higher on Friday as well. Markets were seemingly unaffected by the announcement that crypto lender Genesis had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Trading volumes were moderate for the day, indicating that some investors may simply be pausing as smoke from the bankruptcy announcement clears.On a technical basis, BTC has failed to reach the upper range of its Bollinger Bands for three consecutive trading days after doing so in each of the prior 10.