Cardano Jumps 20% as Analyst Eyes Bitcoin Pullback to $40K to ‘Fill CME Gap’

Native tokens tied to layer 1 (L1) blockchains gained the most Friday, with Cardano (ADA) being the best performer, as steady bitcoin (BTC) price fueled capital rotation to altcoins.

Bitcoin bounced between $43,000 and $44,000 during the day, quickly shaking off a minor dip following a stronger U.S. employment report than analysts expected that dampened interest rate cut expectations for next year.

The top crypto was recently trading at around $43,800, consolidating as investors digested its swift rally to near $45,000 this week after its breakout from $38,000 a week ago.

Altcoins, meanwhile, jumped across the board, resembling early November’s “altcoin rotation” when slowing bitcoin momentum drove traders to realize some gains and invest in smaller, riskier cryptocurrencies. These capital rotations are typical in the crypto markets after large bitcoin run-ups, followed by a rally in bigger crypto assets then among meme coins and micro caps as traders chase tokens that haven’t moved yet to profit.

ADA surged 25% to 57 cents at one point during the day, its highest price since August 2022. It gave up some of the early gains later in the day, but was still up almost 20% today. Other notable top performers were native tokens of Polkadot (DOT), Algorand (ALGO), Avalanche (AVAX) and Solana (SOL), which posted 7%-11% gains.

The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a basket of almost 200 cryptocurrencies, was up 1.5% through the day, more than BTC, underscoring altcoin outperformance.