Text size
A rally more than a week ago lifted bitcoin prices above the key $45,000 level.
Dreamstime
Bitcoin
prices slipped on Monday while a number of smaller cryptocurrencies, or “altcoins,” outperformed.
![Dogecoin [DOGE] to rise beyond 40%? Whale activity may spur rally](https://crypto.newswireservice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/doge-wale-1000x600-120x86.jpg)
Bitcoin, the leading digital asset, was down 1% over the past 24 hours to just below $46,000. A rally more than a week ago carried the crypto above the key $45,000 mark for the first time since January—a level bitcoin has managed to defend, going up as high as $48,000 in the last week.
“Bitcoin seems like it wants to hover here, with prices likely to trade between the $44,500 and $47,000 levels,” Edward Moya, an analyst from broker Oanda, said on Friday as prices held in the same range.
Smaller peer
ether
exhibited similar price action. The token underpinning the Ethereum blockchain network fell slightly to just below $3,500, continuing to trade at the highest levels since early January.
Bitcoin and ether remain well off all-time highs of $68,990 and $4,865, respectively, reached early last November.
Some altcoins and “memecoins”—called that because they were initially intended as internet jokes rather than significant blockchain projects—outperformed.
Cardano
was up 3%, while
dogecoin
gained 2%.
Solana
and
luna
were down 2% to 3%, outpacing declines in bitcoin.
Major bitcoin investors increasing their holdings was one factor catalyzing the latest rally. Terra, an ecosystem of so-called stablecoins, which…
![Dogecoin [DOGE] to rise beyond 40%? Whale activity may spur rally](https://crypto.newswireservice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/doge-wale-1000x600-350x250.jpg)
