What happened
Cryptocurrencies have had a tough start to the week with some falling double digits today. The biggest cryptocurrencies are down slightly, but smaller coins, known as altcoins, are magnifying those losses, as they often do.
As of 3:30 p.m. ET, the value of Polkadot (DOT -4.96%), which had been up as much as 5.6% in the past 24 hours, fell 3.9%. During the same time frame, Solana (SOL -3.02%) fell 2.1% after being down as much as 3.6%, Fantom (FTM -6.00%) dropped 4.9% after heading down 8.9% earlier, and Near (NEAR -2.61%) was down 4.8% after dropping as much as 6.4%.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
The big news that may be keeping some investors out of altcoins today is the recent "unauthorized activity" on Crypto.com accounts. Current reports have the theft at about $15 million of Ethereum, which has gotten headlines across mainstream media.
Polkadot said that the Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain Moonbeam is now live, which will allow developers to more easily launch projects on the Polkadot blockchain.
Solana had the most eventful day with the announcement of a $10 million investment round for decentralized finance protocol Hubble and news that Metaplex Foundation closed a $46 million investment round. J.P. Morgan even noted that Ethereum is losing market share in non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance apps to blockchains like Solana, which could help the smaller cryptocurrency this year.
Near Protocol has been the one cryptocurrency that's avoided the huge market sell-off over the past few months, recently reaching all-time highs after expanding its ecosystem. Prices seem to be pulling back with the broader market today, though, halting the momentum.
Now what
The big theme in the news is that altcoins are building real ecosystems, and I think that's where their value lies. But that hasn't helped valuations today, which are down across the board.
There are a number of reasons to be bullish on cryptocurrencies, but I think the biggest is the idea that crypto will provide real utility in finance, games, the metaverse, and other aspects of digital life. Blockchains like Solana, Fantom, Polkadot, and Near are building these utilities, and that's happening no matter the price of the underlying cryptocurrency.
Volatility has simply become standard in cryptocurrencies, especially in the altcoin realm of cryptocurrencies. They tend to trade up or down big in any given day, and with money flowing out of cryptocurrencies big and small, they've been hit hard recently. But if utility continues to come out of the industry, the future looks bright.
