Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally stalled on Thursday, leaving the stage to cryptocurrency majors ethereum (ETH) and solana (SOL), which led the cryptocurrency rally after surging to a fresh 19-month high.
BTC fell to $43,000 on the day after a wild climb to nearly $45,000 earlier in the week, suggesting traders were taking profits after the largest cryptocurrency broke out from $38,000 a week ago. Bitcoin recently changed hands around $43,300, down 1.1% in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, ETH is up 5% over the same period, hitting $2,372, its highest level since May 2022.
The rise in ETH pushed up the prices of other ETH-adjacent cryptocurrencies, making them the best-performing cryptocurrencies of the day. Ethereum Classic (ETC) appreciated 6%, while liquidity staking protocol Lido’s governance token (LDO) gained more than 11%.
The native tokens of the Ethereum scaling network Optimism and Arbitrum also gained 22% and 9% respectively on the day.
Solana (SOL) rose 8% to $69, its highest level since May 2022, following a three-week cooling off from local highs in mid-November. Cryptocurrency investor and BitMex exchange founder Arthur Hayes posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, hinting at a price target of $100 and speculating on a bullish weekend for altcoins.
