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| By Alex Benfield |
Over the past few months, we have been following blue-chip cryptos closely to confirm the crypto bear market is indeed over and done with.
Naturally, our main focus was on Bitcoin (BTC, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) and Ethereum (ETH, Tech/Adoption Grade “B”), as they confirmed the turn in crypto market cycles.
But in that same time, the altcoin market has exploded.
Many altcoins lost as much as 90% of their peak value during the bear market, but they have now started reclaiming much of those losses to start 2023. In fact, numerous altcoins have already doubled in price year to date!
But this comes as no surprise, as the crypto market is following its usual inter-market cycle:
- The largest cryptos always rise first.
- Blue-chip cryptos follow suit.
- Mid-cap cryptos begin to rise.
- Lastly, lesser-known altcoins begin to pump like crazy.
The cycle ends when traders take profits from the altcoins and either move the money to cash or reinvest in BTC or ETH, which restarts the cycle anew.
It has been a while since we’ve seen the inter-market cycle, as it only happens during bullish conditions and not in bear markets.
This is yet another positive indicator that the crypto market is steadily recovering from the long 2022 bear market!
So, what altcoins have been hot?
This time around, that question is a little easier to answer. There have primarily been three categories of projects that have been heating up: crypto gaming projects, distributed computing and crypto artificial intelligence.
The Graph (GRT, Not Yet Rated) was one of the top gainers this past week, gaining over 110% in the past seven days.
If you’re unfamiliar, the Graph is an indexing protocol that falls under the distributed computing category.
GRT is traded on U.S.-based exchanges like Coinbase Global (COIN) and has been around since the last bull market. It is currently one of the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Here is GRT in U.S. dollar terms via Coinbase:
As for AI cryptos, SingularityNET (AGIX, Not Yet Rated) is up an impressive 180% over the past seven days.
This could partially be attributed to how AI has picked up momentum not only in the crypto sphere, but also in traditional markets.
The explosion of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sent investors in a frenzy trying to gain exposure to AI, and those investors have now also turned to crypto projects to get in on the action.
Here’s AGIX in U.S. dollar terms via Binance:
Representing the crypto gaming category is GALA (GALA, Not Yet Rated) which is up a shocking 220% year to date.
The crypto gaming sector was just beginning to heat up toward the end of the last bull market, and it wouldn’t be surprising if it was one of the hotter sectors in crypto as we head toward the next bull market.
Gala games represents one of the better and more established crypto gaming projects, and this category saw an explosion in popularity overseas.
Should crypto gaming gain more popularity in the United States, this whole market sector could see a massive price gain.
Here’s GALA in U.S. dollar terms via Coinbase:
What’s Next
The bears have lost their momentum and ceded control of this market in favor of the bulls over the past two months. That has brought excitement back for the investors and traders of the crypto market who had stepped away over the past year.
Those investors are looking to buy up some of the lesser-known altcoin projects, especially now that the bear market is over. They hope to gain entry before we truly head into the next bull market.
In a sense, it’s not all that surprising that altcoin projects are heating up right now.
But that doesn’t make it any less exciting!
Best,
Alex
