The cryptocurrency market showed signs of a potential reversal on August 21 after a period of bearish sentiment, with many altcoins experiencing modest gains that pushed the total market capitalization above $3.9 trillion.
LINK and BNB Lead the Charge
After days of a pervasive bearish sentiment, the cryptocurrency ecosystem showed signs of a potential reversal as a majority of altcoins posted modest gains. This collective upward movement was significant enough to propel the total crypto market capitalization back above the $3.9 trillion threshold.
With bitcoin seemingly static, BNB was among the top picks as it rallied to a new all-time high of $882. Although it later retreated to $853, the digital asset’s 2.3% gain in 24 hours made it one of a handful of high-cap altcoins that helped the crypto ecosystem shrug off the impact of bitcoin’s ( BTC) marginal decline.
Meanwhile, LINK’s 4.5% increase was by far the highest of any digital asset among the top 20 assets tracked by Coingecko. In fact, LINK has been one of the few outliers in a week that has been dominated by bears. As shown by data, the latest gain brought its seven-day gains to 12.1%, making it one of the best performers in the period. Only OKB (44%) had a higher weekly gain of all the 100 digital assets.
While the majority of high-cap altcoins saw modest gains of 2% or less, this collective uptick was enough to trigger a slight decline in BTC market dominance, which fell from nearly 60% on Aug. 20 to approximately 58%. However, this minor shift has not been enough to convince some analysts that a full-fledged altcoin rally is imminent. The crypto community is now engaged in a heated debate over whether altcoins will finally “get into gear” and reach new milestones or if the current momentum is simply a temporary reprieve.