What happened
Today, the three top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization (excluding stablecoins), Ethereum (ETH 0.46%), Bitcoin (BTC 2.15%) and Binance Coin (BNB -0.89%), are seeing a nice rebound alongside risk equities. As of 11:20 a.m. ET, these tokens have surged 6.2%, 3.5%, and 6.7%, respectively, over the past 24 hours.
This recovery in crypto markets appears to mainly be shaped by relief over recent geopolitical concerns coming out of the Russia-Ukraine rift. Various reports of de-escalation on this front have investors back to buying the dip, with more speculative assets seeing the largest gains today.
Image source: Getty Images.
Bitcoin briefly dipped below $43,000 per token yesterday, but has since recovered to more than $44,000 per token at the time of this writing. Surging institutional investment in Ethereum has various ETH-focused ETFs seeing higher capital flows, driving the price of this token in a positive direction. And Binance Coin appears to be getting a lift from a renaming of its Binance Smart Chain to BNB Chain today.
So what
Each of these tokens is certainly receiving a lift from positive sentiment in the markets. The past few days have put investors on edge, with the potential for large-scale conflict generally perceived as a bearish event for most risk assets. Unfortunately for crypto investors, these digital assets are becoming more mainstream, and are therefore tracking other assets such as equities more closely.
As far as token-specific catalysts go, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Binance Coin each have unique drivers investors seem to like. Large-scale institutional adoption of Bitcoin and Ethereum continues to be a key focal point for investors, with Ethereum-based funds seeing a surge in interest of late. Should this continue, there's a lot to like about the potential capital flows into this sector, at least for meg-cap tokens.
The renaming of the Binance Smart Chain to BNB Chain may seem like a small detail. However, marketing has proven to be important to investors, and given Binance Coin's surge in interest as an Ethereum blockchain alternative, this move may entice further interest going forward.
Now what
The daily price action of the crypto sector remains volatile, and is likely to continue to hold this pattern for some time. These digital assets are difficult to value, and are therefore prone to larger price swings on macro news. That said, the underlying catalysts these tokens are seeing right now are interesting in their own right.
Investors looking at the three largest cryptocurrencies may like how the big picture is lining up right now. Overall, this market is continuing to move in the right direction, albeit in a choppy fashion of late.
