What happened
Top cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC +0.37%), Ethereum (ETH +0.87%), and Cardano (ADA +2.52%) each continued higher on Saturday. These tokens showed 24-hour gains of 2.5%, 4.0%, and 3.2%, respectively, as of 11:00am ET.
Over the past seven days, each of these tokens remains in the green, between 3% and 5% higher. Of course, Bitcoin saw its worst start to the year since its inception, making this rebound week an important one for traders to watch.
Image source: Getty Images.
Cardano continues to gain ground, following this week's news that the Cardano Forest, a project run by the Cardano Foundation, hit a major milestone of planting 1 million trees.
So what
These moves among top tokens Bitcoin and Ethereum come as trading volumes settle down. According to recent reports, capital inflows into the crypto sector have waned to start the year. This has meant that expectations are that volatility could pick up, once buying or selling pressure returns to more normalized levels.
The Ethereum Foundation keeps working towards the next step of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, which will move the system over to a proof-of-stake architecture while scaling up transaction speeds and lowering gas fees. Bitcoin is starting to look like a reliable alternative to gold and other traditional value stores. This week, investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS +0.42%) argued that the digital currency could be worth $100,000 per token over the next five years.
For Cardano, a top proof-of-stake network aiming to become carbon-negative, it was certainly big news this week when the blockchain network announced that it had inspired 1 million trees to be planted. This Foundation is aiming at planting 1 billion trees in a bid to become the greenest blockchain network, and one devoted to helping solve the climate crisis. Given the negative publicity many top cryptocurrencies have received for energy consumption and carbon emissions, this is a big differentiating factor for Cardano.
Now what
The crypto market appears to be taking a breather, with lower trading volumes suggesting these top tokens may be increasingly viewed as longer-term investments, rather than speculative trading vehicles. For those taking the long view of the crypto sector, that's perhaps a good thing.
However, indications are that should volumes pick up again, volatility could be on the rise. For those taking one side of the bet on any of these tokens over the near term, that's something to consider.
