Bitcoin Price Rises, XRP Drops. Why the Altcoin Rally Is Under Threat.

The market value of Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies surpassed $4 trillion last week. (Dusan Zidar/Dreamstime)

Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies were mixed on Thursday. The surge in altcoins appears to be fading fast.

Bitcoin was up 0.7% over the past 24 hours early on Thursday, at around $118,318, but down from its 24-hour high of above $119,000. The world’s largest cryptocurrency hit a record high of $123,166 last week amid excitement over crypto-related legislation championed by the Trump administration.

“Bitcoin continues to trade sideways in a relatively narrow range. This consolidation follows a sharp jump earlier this month which saw the leading cryptocurrency break to a fresh record high above $123,000,” wrote David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, in a research note. “It is now trading below $120,000 which has developed into a significant resistance level.”

However, the bigger price moves were in altcoins, with Ether rising 1.4%, XRP falling 3.9%, and Solana down 2.5%. Memecoin Dogecoin was down 4.1%.

A pullback was potentially in the cards after Ether more than doubled in the past three months and XRP rose 38% over the same period, both outstripping gains for Bitcoin.

“Without Bitcoin’s growth, altcoins, which had been driving the market upwards in previous days, found themselves on sale. Forty-eight of the top 100 altcoins are losing double-digit rates over 24 hours, while only three are growing,” wrote Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FXPro, in a research note.

One factor affecting altcoins could be doubts over the timeline for approval of exchange-traded funds holding cryptos that aren’t Bitcoin or Ether. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday gave approval to convert a Bitwise cryptocurrency index fund into an ETF but then immediately paused the conversion pending a review.

That indicates regulators might still be wary of allowing funds primarily holding XRP or other smaller cryptos to become ETFs, despite the Trump administration’s relatively pro-crypto stance.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com