Market Wrap: Cryptos and Stocks Mixed; Bitcoin Outperforms Altcoins

Most cryptocurrencies traded lower on Monday, tracking losses in global equities.

Bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest crypto by market capitalization, declined by less than most of the alternative cryptos (altcoins) last month, indicating an overall lower appetite for risk among traders. On Monday, BTC was roughly flat, compared with a 3% loss in Shiba Inu's SHIB token and a 2% dip in Solana's SOL token.

Still, some altcoins have edged higher, including Avalanche's AVAX token, which was up by 4% over the past 24 hours but down by 17% over the past week. Overall, both stocks and cryptos have experienced choppy price action over the past few months.

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On Monday, the S&P 500 fell to a new record low for the year as the 10-year Treasury yield hit 3% for the first time since 2018. Also, on Monday, European stocks plunged during the first few minutes of trading, which caused some exchanges to briefly halt trading. Gold, a traditional safe haven, was also down on Monday.

Latest prices

●Bitcoin (BTC): $38,547, +1.91%

●Ether (ETH): $2,842, +2.76%

●S&P 500 daily close: $4,156, +0.57%

●Gold: $1,863 per troy ounce, −2.43%

●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.00%

Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.

Bitcoin dominance on watch

The risk-off tone in stocks is also evident in crypto markets.

The chart below shows the bitcoin dominance ratio, or the ratio of bitcoin's market cap relative to the total crypto market cap. The ratio has been stuck in a year-long range, albeit elevated above 40%.

Typically, the BTC dominance ratio declines during risk-on periods as altcoins outperform bitcoin. And during down markets, the ratio rises as bitcoin experiences less selling pressure than alts. The last significant rise in the dominance ratio was seen during the 2018 crypto bear market.

Currently, the ratio is trading above its 200-day moving average, which could signal a reversal from its steep downtrend.

Additional increases in the dominance ratio could also cap upside moves in several altcoins relative to bitcoin.

Still, multi-asset crypto fund flows have continued to rise this year, which could reflect the need for diversification among investors. For example, in April, bitcoin and ether-focused crypto funds saw outflows, while multi-asset funds saw inflows, according to data from CoinShares.

Altcoin roundup

• Crypto.com slashes card rewards, CRO tokens drop 11% as community reacts: Revisions to Crypto.com’s card and staking rewards sent token prices tumbling as much as 11% as the community expressed dismay over the changes that go into effect after June 1. In a blog post on Sunday, Crypto.com said it would reduce rewards on the usage of its Visa-enabled cards based on the tiers offered. Read more here.
• DeFi lender Rari Capital/Fei lost $80M in hack: Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms Rari Capital and Fei Protocol suffered a more-than-$80 million hack early Saturday. The hacker exploited a reentrancy vulnerability in Rari's Fuse lending protocol, according to a tweet by smart contract analysis firm Block Sec. Read more here.
• Solana went dark for seven hours: Solana stakeholders rushed to right the network Saturday night after what one insider called “insane amount of data” flooded the proof-of-stake chain, knocking validators out of consensus and grinding block production to a halt. Bots had swarmed the popular non-fungible token (NFT) minting tool known as Candy Machine earlier Saturday with an unprecedented tsunami of inbound traffic. Read more here.

Relevant insight

• Listen🎧: The CoinDesk Markets Daily podcast takes a look at why competitive crypto payments are more important than you’d think.
• Michael Saylor and Jack Dorsey Among Bitcoin Heavyweights Defending Mining in Letter to EPA: Bitcoin mining sites are no different than data centers operated by mega-cap tech firms such as Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet's (GOOG) Google, Meta (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT), the authors wrote.
• Argentina’s Largest Private Bank Launches Crypto Trading Feature: Banco Galicia now allows users to buy bitcoin, ether, USDC and XRP.
• Ohio's Senate Candidates Stake Out Crypto Positions: While crypto policy is unlikely to sway the outcome of Tuesday’s primary, its mindshare among the candidates augurs well for the industry’s clout in the nation’s capital.
• Top EU Official Calls for Global Crypto Agreement: Europe and the U.S. should work together to limit "significant risks" to investors and the environment, Mairead McGuinness said.
• India Includes Crypto Businesses in New Rules for Cyber Security: The move is seen as a positive step that gives clarity to the crypto industry on several fronts.

Other markets

Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower.

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Algorand ALGO +3.4% Smart Contract Platform Litecoin LTC +3.1% Currency Ethereum ETH +2.8% Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Solana SOL −0.9% Smart Contract Platform Filecoin FIL −0.8% Computing Polkadot DOT −0.6% Smart Contract Platform

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges.