BNB Flips USDC, Cardano Flips Dogecoin With Crypto Relief Rally

Binance Coin (BNB) is back in the top four cryptocurrencies by market value after flipping popular stablecoin USDC this week.

BNB has jumped 13% so far in 2023 to boost its capitalization to nearly $45.5 billion, its highest point in one month. 

USDC, on the other hand, now boasts $43.8 billion in circulating supply, around $800 million below its capitalization at the start of the year, giving room for BNB to advance on its leaderboard position during its recent rally.

All this while stablecoin dominance retreats. Stablecoins altogether made up almost 19% of the entire crypto market in early November, a record high set as FTX imploded. That figure is now down to 16%, per The TIE, a 14 percentage point drop. 

Broad stroke analysis would suggest traders flocked to dollar-pegged assets like USDC, tether (USDT) and Binance’s own branded offering, BUSD, as markets turned sour last quarter. 

Now that markets seem eager for a recovery rally, they’ve since piled back into other tokens — boosting prices and market caps while diminishing stablecoin dominance. 

Crypto has added 8% to its collective capitalization so far this year, representing $65 billion in gains. 

Circle says that between Dec. 29 and Jan. 5, the firm redeemed $4.2 billion in USDC for cash while issuing $3.6 billion in fresh tokens, putting its redeem-to-issuance ratio at 7:6.

BNB’s resilience is noteworthy considering the noise surrounding Binance’s reserves, regulatory strife and BUSD’s backing.

But Binance itself finished the year with 80% market share relative to 11 competitors, according to Kaiko, gaining ground in the wake of FTX’s demise.

BNB aside, Ether rally could really boost crypto markets

Still, other top cryptocurrencies are doing very well this year. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) were up 5.5% and 12% year to date, respectively as of 7:00 am, ET. Polygon (MATIC) and polkadot (DOT) have both posted close to 14% returns.

Analysts are watching ether closely, however. Research unit BitOoda recently highlighted ETH’s outperformance relative to bitcoin, noting that any potential bull run in bitcoin “will doubly impact ETH if this out-performance continues.”

“ETH breakout is a good leading indicator for crypto bullishness and could signal a bull run in the next two weeks,” BitOoda said.

Solana (SOL) is also attempting a recovery. SOL shed up to 75% of its value after the FTX drama broke in November, but has since risen 60% in 2023.

Other Layer-1 blockchains from market cycles past are also doing well, with dogecoin (DOGE) adding more than 9% as its hashrate sits at record highs. 

Cardano (ADA) meanwhile surged more than 28% to flip DOGE earlier this week.

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