Bitcoin Cools and Drops Below $30,000—But XRP, Chainlink Surging

By Mat Di Salvo

Bitcoin's run may be cooling off—the largest digital asset is now below $30,000 per coin—but a number of altcoins are soaring.

Just weeks ago, the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency soared above $31,000—a yearly high—thanks to renewed institutional investor interest in the space.

Now it has dropped again, and is trading hands for $29,890, according to CoinGecko—a 1.3% 24-hour drop. It has also dropped 2% in the past seven days.

But other coins and tokens are up significantly.

Flex Coin (FLEX), the native token for crypto exchange CoinFLEX, is one of the best performers, up 20% in the past day, trading for $4.12. It has surged by more than 37% in seven days.

Meanwhile, Ripple's XRP is still on a roll: Last week, a judge ruled that the company behind the cryptocurrency was partly victorious in a long-standing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it sold unregistered securities back in 2020.

Investors obviously interpreted the ruling as positive because XRP is currently trading for $0.75, a 2.4% 24-hour jump. But in the past seven days, it is up nearly 60%.

Chainlink is also up significantly. The 23rd largest digital asset by market cap yesterday launched its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) on its Mainnet. Since then, it's jumped over 4% in the past day and 12.4% in the past week.

And Sui, a layer 1 blockchain launched in May 2023, with a native token of the same name, has jumped over 7% in the past day and is trading for $0.74.

Investors have flocked back to crypto after a high-profile Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) application from BlackRock and the launch of a new crypto exchange called EDX Markets backed by major Wall Street players led to renewed confidence in the digital asset space.

Despite Bitcoin being down today, the asset is up significantly since the start of the year when it was trading for less than $17,000 per coin.