The cryptocurrency market is seeing increased short liquidations as major assets, including Bitcoin, gain bullish momentum.
According to data provided by Coinglass, the total liquidations over the past 24 hours surpassed $192 million. Of this tally, more than $145 million in short trading positions have been wiped out and the remaining $46 million belongs to long trades.
Bitcoin (BTC) recorded $63 million in liquidations—$55 million shorts and $7.7 million longs—as it surpassed the $66,000 mark on Oct. 14. BTC is still up 2.3% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $65,300 at the time of writing.
Ethereum (ETH) is sitting on the second spot with $37 million in daily liquidations—$30 million in shorts and $7 million in longs. Thanks to the short liquidations, the leading altcoin crossed the $2,600 mark for the first time in two weeks.
Per Coinglass, the largest single liquidation order happened on Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, and was worth $5.2 million in ETH/USDT pair.
The Binance exchange accounts for $94 million of the total liquidations with a 76% dominance of short positions.
Despite the rallying liquidations, the total open interest in the crypto market increased by 4.7%, reaching $69.5 billion, per Coinglass data. This movement usually shows signs of FOMO and greed.
According to data from CoinGecko, the global crypto market capitalization increased by over $109 billion over the past day—currently sitting at $2.406 trillion. At this point, Bitcoin has a 54.2% dominance over the whole market with a total market cap of almost $1.3 trillion.
Another bullish driver for the Bitcoin price was the impressive surge in the U.S.-based spot BTC exchange-traded funds. Per a crypto.news report, these ETFs recorded $555.9 million in inflows on Monday—marking a four-month high.
Render, a decentralized graphics processing unit-based rendering solutions provider, is seeing a notable price recovery as large wallet addresses aggressively accumulate the native token.
The Render (RENDER) token ranks as one of the top artificial intelligence and decentralized finance cryptocurrencies by market cap. After its native token plummeted to $4.50 on Sept. 7, Render has shown significant resilience, reclaiming support above $6.00.
RENDER price ‘bottomed’
According to market intelligence and on-chain insights provider Santiment, Render is showing recovery buoyed by large address accumulation. This comes after the artificial intelligence token bottomed out near $4.60 on Sept. 18, with bears rejecting bulls’ attempt to push higher around $5.35 a week earlier.
Most altcoins experienced significant volatility during this time, with related tokens such as Bittensor (TAO) soaring.
Gains for Render have largely been muted, but the bullish shift amid whale accumulation has seen its price rise by more than 33% over the past week. This upside has coincided with a fresh spike in artificial intelligence-related tokens.
Whales bought the Render dip
Whales and sharks took advantage of recent pullbacks to buy low. For Render, this was a notable occurrence, as pointed out by Santiment analysts in an post on X.
On-chain data shows that these large holders possess at least 100,000 Render tokens. About 902 addresses hold 100,000 or more tokens, with large holders controlling 91% of the total supply.
In the past eleven weeks, these large wallets have accumulated over 20.5 million Render tokens, valued at more than $126.3 million. During this aggressive accumulation, whales and sharks added 3.7% of Render’s total supply to their holdings.
While the whales adopted a bullish stance on the altcoin, investor wallets appear to have sold off sharply. In the past month, investors dumped 21% of their holdings, which whales absorbed. Retail investors also purchased more tokens, adding 3.6% to their portfolios.
Cryptocurrency prices were mostly flat on Sep. 23 as traders embraced a wait-and-see approach after last week’s Federal Reserve decision.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose to a multi-week high of $64,741 and then quickly pulled back to $63,377 while Ethereum (ETH) rose to $2,680.
This price action mirrored that of the stock market, as major U.S. indices like the Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 showed little movement.
Nevertheless, some popular cryptocurrencies continued to rally. Neiro (NEIRO), a widely known meme coin, surged to a record high of $0.0012, bringing its market cap to over $484 million. It has become the ninth-largest meme coin, surpassing the likes of Book of Meme, Cat in a Dog’s World, and Mog Coin.
Immutable X (IMX), a popular layer-2 network for gaming and non-fungible tokens, soared to $1.9481, its highest level since June 4. It has risen for seven consecutive days, more than doubling from its August low.
Immutable has rallied due to its growing popularity among game developers. Last week, Immortal Rising 2 was deployed on its zkEVM network, a significant milestone since the game has thousands of players globally.
Other newly launched games on the network include RavenQuest Phase 2, The Tree Verse, and Arise.
These games have led to an increase in NFT sales on Immutable. Data from CryptoSlamshows that total sales rose by over 16% to $3.4 million in the past seven days, led by Guild of Guardians Heroes, whose sales jumped by 17%.
Arkham (ARKM) was another top-performing cryptocurrency, rising to a high of $1.42, its highest level since July 19. The token has gained popularity due to the extensive data available on its ecosystem.
Arkham price rebounded after forming a double-bottom chart pattern on the daily chart. In technical analysis, this is one of the most bullish signs in the market. It has risen above its neckline at $1.40, indicating potential for further gains.
Cryptocurrency prices were mixed as traders focused on the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting, with the crypto fear and greed index remaining in the fear zone.
Immutable X (IMX), the gaming and non-fungible token-focused coin, was the best performer, rising by 17.7% to its highest point since Aug. 31. It has jumped by almost 60% from its lowest level in August.
Immutable’s jump occurred as total NFT sales in its ecosystem surged by over 125% in the last 24 hours. These sales were primarily driven by Guild of Guardians Heroes, whose sales rose by 145% to $647,067.
Still, like other chains, Immutable’s NFT sales have been in a long-term downward trend over the past few months. Sales dropped by 33% in the last 30 days to $15 million, while the number of buyers fell by 31% to 12,177.
Celestia (TIA), a leading player in modular data, rose by 15% to its August 26 high, while Bittensor (TAO) jumped by 13% to its June 24 high. These tokens gained as demand among investors increased, with Celestia’s 24-hour volume rising by 23% to $138 million and Bittensor’s volume rising by 5% to $85 million.
Bittensor also benefited from the rising interest in artificial intelligence-focused coins and stocks. Nvidia shares have rallied by 9% in the last five days, while Microsoft rose by 7%. Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, saw increased positive sentiment, with 85% of CMC users being bullish.
Looking ahead, the main catalyst for these altcoins will be Wednesday’s Federal Reserve decision. 52% of participants in a Polymarket poll with over $45 million in assets expect the Fed to cut rates by 0.50%. 47% of them see a 0.25% cut.
In theory, these tokens should perform well when the Fed starts cutting interest rates, as it would incentivize investors to move to riskier assets. However, there is also a risk that these coins could retreat, as the rate cut may already be priced in by market participants
This likely explains why the crypto fear and greed index has remained in the fear zone at 34. Historically, cryptocurrencies tend to drop when fear dominates market sentiment.
With the crypto market capitalization now somewhere midway between the highest and lowest points of the last 12 months, many investors are looking for opportunities in the crypto industry.
Check out the best performing altcoins this week including high-cap and low-cap options to give a balanced view of the overall market.
Table of Contents
Top 5 performing altcoins of September 2024
First, we’ll start with the high-cap options and look at the altcoin top 5 gainers in the last 7 days. These projects are taken from the top 100 coins by market cap, starting with those that have seen the strongest price growth this week.
Let’s take a look at the week’s biggest volume gainers in crypto!
BinaryX (BNX)
BinaryX is a decentralized platform used for blockchain-based gaming development and entertainment. The native BNX token is the top gainer this week within the top 100 coins ranked by market cap, seeing a 34% rise in price over 7 days.
The project has been adding more games to the platform as well as adding more advanced governance and tokenomics features, all of which have been issued a vote of confidence by recent investors.
Fantom (FTM)
Layer-1 dApp network Fantom is up a healthy 20.8% this week, bolstered by news of Sonic Labs, a key player in the Fantom industry, targeting an $11 trillion lending market thanks to a recent project update. This was enough to cause significant support for FTM in the near term, with many now waiting to see how the coin will fare over the coming weeks.
Artificial Intelligence Superalliance (FET)
Despite boasting a name more outlandish than most meme coins, the Artificial Intelligence Superalliance has seen increased investment from crypto users over the last 7 days with a 20% price increase for FET tokens (FET). The project is actually comprised of some heavy hitters in the intersecting industries of AI and blockchain, including Fetch.ai which is working on developing smart city technology in collaboration with the government of Munich.
Sui (SUI)
SUI token is up over 17% this week, most likely aided by the announcement of the SUI trust for accredited investors which has just been launched by Grayscale. (SUI) SUI was developed by Mystery Labs, a company that boasts several former Meta engineers who lend an air of credibility and professionalism to the project.
Toncoin (TON)
Toncoin (TON), the native token for the Telegram app ecosystem, is also up 17% over the last 7 days. TON is actually down 13% on the month, with fears of the dreaded death cross pattern on the charts, perhaps influenced by the troubling news of Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov’s arrest in France in late August. However, investors will also note that TON has been up 277% over the last 12 months, with a growing user base and added features that add to the appeal of this coin.
Source: TradingView
Low-cap: the biggest altcoin gainers
In the low-cap altcoin space, the gains are quite a bit higher. So, too, of course, are the gainers! Take extra caution when exploring this list. While it’s interesting to see which altcoins have experienced high price volatility, that volatility is one of the main causes of losses for retail investors.
When considering an investment in any crypto, but especially those with small market caps, crypto users are typically advised to be very thorough in their research and in the implementation of their risk management strategy.
Euno (EUNO)
The EUNO privacy coin has seen a massive 233% gain this past week alone as investors line up to buy in on the trending coin. The price action is very curious indeed, as the official X account for this project hasn’t posted in almost a year, and there are no posts or news articles online explaining the recent uptick in price.
The market cap is very low even for a small cap project, with just over $1 million in total capitalization, and with such a small market cap and no immediately apparent fundamentals behind the price growth, an equal or greater price correction could easily take place at any moment for this coin.
Swisscheese (SWCH)
SWCH is the native coin for the Swisscheese DeFi platform, and has just seen a 133% increase in value over the las 7 days. The platform allows for swaps of cryptocurrencies and even other assets like stocks, making it popular among investors. The token recently broke above its 50-day moving average, perhaps further spurring any bullish investors.
Catgirl (CATGIRL)
Catgirl crypto is up 107% this week as interest continues to grow in the budding meme coin. This coin has an extremely small market cap of just $670,000, making it a very high-risk investment for even the most gung-ho crypto investors.
At that size, a project’s price action is very much subject to the whims or designs of deep-pocketed market operators, and any sizeable trade in either direction could cause chaos for CATGIRL price and traders alike.
Staying safe with altcoins
It’s always interesting to read about the best-performing altcoins this week and to learn the antics of crypto’s biggest movers. However, high-volume gainers can become high-volume losers in an instant, particularly with smaller projects.
While searching for promising altcoins, don’t forget to look beyond the latest price action and to factor in the use case and team that underlie the project, as chasing volume alone can lead to traders holding the bag more often than not.
To read more about risk management and how to set up your own crypto portfolio, read our article on the subject here.
XEN Crypto, the social mining protocol whose native cryptocurrency has surged in recent weeks, is down nearly 8% in 24 hours as traders take profits.
The XEN Crypto price rose to highs of $0.0003698 during the last bull market but slumped as the bear market took its toll on projects. Notably, the token minted on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain sold off to near zero on August 5, 2024, as Bitcoin (BTC) crashed, leading crypto prices lower.
However, a recent surge in trader interest for the proof-of-participation token has seen XEN’s price rise more than 43% in the past seven days. This surge is likely the reason for the declines seen in the past 24 hours. Intraday trading volume has also shrunk by 23% to just over $2 million.
Despite trading in the green over the past week and month, XEN’s price is down 81% over the past year.
A look at its all-time performance shows the token’s gains during the 2021 bull market have been virtually wiped out. Nonetheless, XEN’s price is up 67% from its all-time low reached on Aug. 5.
What might help XEN price?
XEN is a project that has recently gained renewed traction following the successful transition of Ethereum from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake mechanism. By burning ETH for minted XEN, the project has helped in Ethereum’s deflationary mechanism.
The XEN token is also dominating transactions across Ethereum virtual machine chains, while the team is working on its X1 blockchain that will connect the community across supported EVM chains. X1 is designed as a hybrid PoW/PoS network.
solXEN, a token mined on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, is another trending component of the XEN ecosystem. Interest in the token ahead of X1 mainnet launch is also helping the overall bounce for XEN price.
Celestia price continued its sell-off this week and is hovering at its lowest point since November 2023, ahead of a major token unlock.
Celestia (TIA) dropped to $4.15 on Sept. 10, down by more than 80% from its highest level in February. This decline has brought its market cap to over $868 million, down from $3.2 billion earlier this year.
Celestia’s sell-off happened as Bitcoin (BTC) and other altcoins lost momentum. Bitcoin has dropped by over 23% from its highest level this year, while Ether has fallen by 43%.
Celestia’s key challenge is the impending token unlock, which will lead to further dilution of existing holders. Celestia has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, with 209 million currently in circulation. This means that over 859 million tokens are yet to enter the market.
According to TokenUnlocks, over 174 million tokens, worth more than $175 million, or 16.4% of the total supply, will be unlocked on October 31. These tokens will be allocated to seed investors, initial core contributors, and Series A and B investors.
Celestia’s last token unlock occurred on Oct. 31 last year, and the final unlock is expected to take place in October 2027.
Token unlocks typically result in more dilution by increasing the number of coins in circulation. In Celestia’s case, this will likely affect its staking yield, which currently stands at 9.96%, according to StakingRewards.
Celestia’s staking revenue is derived from transaction fees, block rewards, and data availability sampling fees. As more tokens are introduced into staking pools, the yield is expected to decline.
TIA’s token has also dropped even as the Celestia network has continued to gain market share in the modular data industry. Data shows that the platform’s share has rise to about 40% while Ethereum Blobs has a 58% share.
Celestia’s token has been in a strong sell-off, dropping from a peak of $21.30 in February to $4.12. It has fallen below the 78.6% Fibonacci Retracement point and the 50-day moving average.
TIA has also formed strong support at $3.95, a level it has failed to break since July. This price is notable as it represents the lower side of the descending triangle pattern, a popular bearish signal.
As a result, Celestia is at risk of falling to a record low if it breaks below this important support level.
Fantom token continued its downward trend on Friday, Sept. 6, after the Sonic testnet went live and its transactions rose.
Fantom (FTM) price was trading at $0.387, its lowest swing since Aug. 20 and 27% below its highest point in August. In a statement on X, Sonic Labs noted that the testnet was live, a process expected to last for a few months.
Data on the testnet website shows that the network had processed over 106 million transactions. It is handling about 11 transactions per second, with the average gas per second being around 335,000.
The time to finality — the time between when a transaction is submitted to a node and when it is confirmed — was just 0.70 seconds. These statistics make Sonic one of the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machines in the industry.
The developers hope this upgrade will attract more creators to build on the ecosystem. In line with this, they have launched a $27 million bounty program to support developers in areas like payments, lending, stablecoins, and gaming.
After the testnet phase ends, Fantom’s FTM token will transition to S. This upgrade comes at a time when Fantom has lost momentum and market share in the crypto industry. Its market cap has fallen from over $7 billion to $1 billion.
Data from DeFi Llama shows that the total value locked in the ecosystem has dropped to $70 million from a record high of over $7.8 billion. Some of the biggest players in its ecosystem are Beethoven X, WigoSwap, SpookySwap, and Beefy.
Fantom also has a small market share in the decentralized exchange industry. Its DEX platforms handled over $57.9 million in the last seven days, making it the 26th-largest chain in the industry.
Sonic’s biggest challenge will be the competition in the industry. In addition to other top chains like Tron (TRX) and Solana (SOL), it will compete with layer-2 networks like Arbitrum and Base.
The FTM token price has crashed in the past few months. It peaked at $1.2267 in March and has dropped by over 68% to $0.40. It has remained below the 50-day moving average and the upper side of the descending channel.
Therefore, the path of least resistance for Fantom is downward, with the next point to watch being $0.30, 21% below Friday’s level.
Immutable X token is stuck in a deep bear market ahead of a big token unlock and as the outlook for non-fungible tokens darkens.
Immutable X (IMX) retreated to $1.958 on Sep. 3, 67% lower than the year-to-date high of $3.74. It was also hovering near its lowest point since November last year.
Immutable X, the popular layer-2 blockchain for gaming and NFTs, will be in the spotlight on Thursday, Sep. 6, as it unlocks more tokens. According to CMC, the network will unlock 32.47 million IMX tokens worth over $41.2 million, leading to more dilution for existing holders.
These new tokens will move to project development, ecosystem development, private sales, and the foundation reserve. Immutable X is then scheduled to unlock over 113.7 million more tokens by December this year.
According to TokenUnlocks, Immutable has unlocked over 1.58 billion tokens and has 416.15 million to go. If all goes well, the vesting schedule will end in November next year.
Token unlocks are seen as negative catalysts for a cryptocurrency because they dilute existing holders, especially stakers. According to its website, staking rewards are generated from the 20% protocol fee and are then distributed to stakers every 14 days. As such, additional tokens in these pools often lead to lower returns.
Immutable X token has also dropped as concerns about the NFT industry continue. Recent data shows that the monthly NFT sales and transactions have continued to fall this year. According to CryptoSlam, total NFT sales in the last 30 days dropped by over 24% to $16.8 million. Buyers and sellers also fell by 41% and 25%, respectively.
On the positive side, there are signs that the network’s gaming ecosystem is doing well. This week, Immutable X partnered with Portal, a leading Web3 distribution platform. This partnership will lead to enhanced distribution of games built on Immutable X and liquidity improvements.
Portal is the leading web3 distribution platform. We are making it easy for players worldwide to gain easy and rewarding access to the best web3 games.
The IMX token has slipped from the year-to-date high of $3.7570 to $1.200, the 78.6% Fibonacci Retracement point. It formed a death cross in June and then retested the key resistance point at $1.7185 in August. A break and retest pattern is a popular sign of a continuation.
Therefore, Immutable X token will likely drop and retest the important support at $0.9043, its lowest swing in August. A drop below that point will lead to more downside.
