By James Davis
Altcoins have rallied significantly this week after Polygon Labs released key details of its network’s upcoming upgrade and Ripple’s victory against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. On the other hand, the two leading cryptocurrencies by market cap, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are closing the week with minimum gains.
Bitcoin’s 7-day growth stands at 1.2%. The popular coin is changing hands for $30,398, according to data from CoinGecko.
Many expected BTC to rally on Monday when British bank Standard Chartered published a report suggesting the coin could touch $120,000 before the end of 2025. However, that wasn’t the case.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s main competitor Ethereum is up 3.3% for the week. The token reached $2,000 on Thursday, a level it had not seen since May 6. ETH currently sells for $1,937.
While a CPI report published in mid-week indicated that inflation in the United States was slowing, investors still did not bother to inject money into the two leading crypto assets.
What’s Driving MATIC’s Rally?
Instead, they bought some top altcoins, causing their prices to surge massively. Polygon, for example, has recorded a 7-day growth of 12.67%, following a report that the network has been witnessing increased activity in the last few weeks. Data from blockchain analytics from Nansen shows that more NFTs were minted on Polygon last month than in May. The surge in network activity comes five weeks after the Securities and Exchange Commission labeled MATIC as a security.
Another factor fueling the MATIC rally is that Polygon Labs announced new tokenomics on Friday ahead of the Polygon 2.0 launch. In addition, the selling pressure on the token has finally declined after bankrupt crypto lender Celsius sold off its entire MATIC holding as directed by the court.
Besides MATIC holders, XRP holders have also had a good week. On Thursday, the judge presiding over the SEC Vs. Ripple’s case delivered his ruling in favor of the XRP issuer. According to Judge Analisa Torres, XRP has never been a security, and its sale did not break any securities rule.
Torres’ ruling did not just cause XRP to rally but also Cardano and Solana, which were previously mentioned as securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its lawsuits against exchange Coinbase and Binance.
Altcoins Price Analysis
XRP has grown by 64% this week to trade at $0.7774, while Cardano and Solana are up 33% and 22.8% to $0.3267 and $27.78, respectively.
Other altcoins that have posted remarkable rallies over the past seven days include Lido DAO, which is up 26.5% to $2.36; Stellar’s XLM, which has surged 47.8% to $0.1314; and Chainlink, which has grown 14.29% to $6.97.
It’s worth mentioning that the top thirty cryptocurrencies did not record any major losses this week.
CoinGecko’s data indicates that the total market capitalization is $1.26 trillion as of Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, a number of crypto exchanges that had earlier delisted XRP have announced plans to relist it in the coming days following the court ruling.
EU Crypto Regulations
On Monday, the European Banking Authority released a statement highlighting clear guidelines for stablecoin issuers wishing to operate in the European Union member states. The new rules require these companies to practice transparency in relation to their risk management, business model, and disclosure. However, the policies will not be enforced until Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) take effect in June next year.