Altcoins Are Taking Their Moment to Shine as Regulatory Headwinds Look Poised to Clear

Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to leave on Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration date.

Bitcoin price hovered around $98,800 on Friday morning in New York after setting a new record on Thursday. It rose 1% over the past 24 hours, slowing its recent momentum. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index advanced over 7%. Most altcoins in the CD20 outperformed BTC, showing an early sign of capital rotation into smaller, riskier tokens as bitcoin's pace stalls.

After another record high on Thursday at $99,500, BTC dipped below $99,000 heading into the U.S. open. Among the CoinDesk 20 assets, XRP led the rally with a 33% gain in 24 hours. Cardano's ADA rose over 15%, following XRP's strong performance. Solana's native token (SOL) hit an all-time high above $260, becoming the first of the large-cap altcoins to surpass the 2021 market peaks.

Bitcoin's price point at $100,000 poses a significant resistance level, where investors might take profits on their investments. However, there's a possibility of BTC rallying to $115,000 by Christmas, supported by broadening stablecoin supply, inflows into ETFs and bullish options positioning on BlackRock's spot BTC ETF (IBIT), 10x Research said in a Friday note.

Altcoins are having their moment to shine as regulatory headwinds look poised to clear. Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is set to leave on Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration date. Industry participants largely anticipate that the agency's new leadership will be more open to approving investment products for smaller tokens and allowing staking for ETFs.

Financial service giant Charles Schwab wants to directly offer crypto to users, its incoming CEO said, a sign that U.S. institutions are increasingly emboldened by an expected regulatory sea-change towards digital assets. "We’ve been waiting on a change in the regulatory environment … and we’re confident that we think that will come in short order," Rick Wurster said in an interview. Also, digital asset manager Bitwise officially joined the race to launch a spot-based solana ETF in the U.S.