After having a decent week, Bitcoin is up a modest nearly 1% in the past day—but it isn't the shining star in the crypto market today.
A number of altcoins are surging, with assets like Toncoin (TON), Aave (AAVE), and Maker (MKR) leading the charge.
Prominent DeFi token MKR is up more than 3%, currently trading hands for $1,455, according to CoinGecko.
The price jump may be something to do with the project's Endgame Plan—an intiative to generate as much revenue for the protocol via yield from real-world assets—which is gaining traction. It was divisive when it was debuted last year, but has since helped the project to see healthy returns on its treasury.
And MKR isn't the only DeFi token to be on the up: AAVE, the 45th biggest digital asset by market cap, is up over 6% in the past week, CoinGecko data shows. It is right now trading for $68.82.
While TON, the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network, is also one of the top gainers, having added 6.5% to its value in the past 24 hours. It is price right now is coming in at $2.07, CoinGecko shows.

Toncoin Surges Into Top 10 Cryptocurrencies, Briefly Topping Dogecoin
Toncoin (TON), the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network, is now the 10th biggest digital asset by market cap—and on Tuesday, it briefly overtook Dogecoin as the ninth largest cryptocurrency by that metric. Riding on the back of news last week that a self-custodial digital wallet had launched on popular messaging app Telegram, TON is now up more than 31% in the past seven days, making it the best-performing asset in the top 100 cryptocurrencies during that span. TON is right now trading hand...
The asset has been on a roll since popular messaging app Telegram launched a self-custodial digital wallet for its users and last month landed a spot in the top 10 biggest cryptocurrencies—briefly stealing Dogecoin's crown.
Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market cap, is trading for $27,441. The coin hit a two-month high on Sunday after a number of short liquidations—which may have been caused by a short squeeze in the futures market.
Other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, and Polygon are all down in the past 24 hours.