Mainstream altcoins performed strongly

Some major altcoins saw impressive gains. For example, Ripple’s XRP surged nearly 10% in a single day to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, surpassing Binance’s BNB, after Ripple announced it had received key licenses to operate and provide services in Georgia and Dubai.

Other well-known altcoins such as Cardano’s ADA, Avalanche’s AVAX, Dogecoin (DOGE), Chainlink’s token (LINK), and UniSwap’s token (UNI) also saw positive moves, with daily gains reaching 5% to 6%.

NFT marketplace Blur’s BLUR token also rose 32% in just one day and doubled in the past month. The platform previously announced plans to airdrop 300 million tokens on November 20.

According to Blockchaincenter, 57% of the top 50 cryptocurrencies have outperformed Bitcoin in the past 30 days and 33% have outperformed Bitcoin in the past 90 days, which is below the 75% threshold for altcoin season but usually marks the beginning of this phase.

Investment advisory firm ByteTree also believes that the "altcoin season" may be coming. They adjusted their model portfolio, reducing the weight of Bitcoin and adding altcoins such as NEAR token (NEAR), Stacks (STX), LINK and XRP.

Global investment management company VanEck said in a recent research report that high-quality altcoins will "stand out" by 2024. VanEck gave a prediction for Solana's price. The report simulated a scenario where the SOL price would reach $3,211 by 2030 in a bull market scenario, an 80-fold increase from its current price.

Macro-favorable factors

Investors' shift to risky assets is inseparable from the changes in the macro environment. The Federal Reserve paused its interest rate hikes, the price of safe-haven gold fell to its lowest level in three weeks, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil plunged 4% to its lowest level since July. Investors turned to U.S. Treasuries for shelter, causing the 10-year Treasury yield to fall to 4.55%, the lowest level in six weeks. The S&P 500 index has reached 4,383 points, the highest level in nearly seven weeks, exceeding expectations during the global economic slowdown.

In short, as the market continues to rise, the spring of altcoins has arrived.