Solana’s SOL Highest Gainer Among Major Cryptos as Bitcoin Holds $47K

Solana’s SOL token led gains among major cryptocurrencies as the broader crypto market remained flat on Thursday following strong momentum from earlier this week.

Ether (ETH) remained flat at the $3,400 mark alongside binance coin (BNB) and XRP. Avalanche’s AVAX token rose 7% as its first-ever developer and community conference drew to a close this week.

Crypto markets added 0.7% in the past 24 hours with strong gains in cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization between $1 billion and $5 billion. Zilliqa's ZIL tokens surged 20%. The token is up 289% since last week. Meanwhile, IOST surged as much as 40%.

Some analysts said capital rotation to altcoins came as risk appetite returned among investors.

“There is a search for new ideas, away from institutional capital and the eyes of politicians,” FxPro market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said in an email to CoinDesk. “There is an influx of stablecoins to centralized platforms, which may indicate the interest of investors in the upcoming purchases of cryptocurrencies.”

SOL jumped 14% to $127 in the past 24 hours. That's a two-month high and close to resistance of $130. Growth came as OpenSea – the biggest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace by volume – said it will start to support Solana-based NFTs on its platform in April.

Bitcoin (BTC) held above the $47,000 mark as blockchain entity Luna Foundation Group (LFG) continued to bid on the asset. LFG seeks to purchase over $10 billion in bitcoin as a reserve for Terra’s UST stablecoin. It is building a bitcoin-denominated reserve as an additional layer of security for UST, the fourth-largest stablecoin in circulation, as reported.

Price charts show bitcoin continues to hold above its 200-day moving average at $47,200, building up strength ahead of a likely move to over $53,000, according to some traders. The decline in U.S. stocks on Wednesday after four days of gains also didn't contribute to the positive dynamics, the traders said.

U.S. indexes suggested mixed sentiment ahead of Thursday’s open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.04%, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.28%. Elsewhere, gold lost 0.23%, and crude oil fell as much as 6%.