Some of the largest altcoins in the market, such as Optimism (OP) and Kaspa (KAS), are on the cusp of reaching new record highs as institutional interest in the cryptocurrency industry continues to rise.
Thanks to the influx of billions of dollars into Bitcoin ETFs, investors in the crypto space are now looking to reinvest their profits into alternative coins.
Following a relentless surge between January 23rd and February 16th, the total market capitalization of altcoins worldwide has increased by $108 billion, with some of the major altcoins edging closer to their all-time highs this month.
Kaspa (KAS) is currently ranked 31st on the global crypto charts with a market capitalization of $3.2 billion. Utilizing its GHOSTDAG protocol, Kaspa merges the security and decentralization of a proof-of-work architecture with the high block rates and fast confirmation times of a proof-of-stake network.
Over the past three weeks, KAS has seen significant price gains, outperforming not only well-known proof-of-work coins like Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC), but also the overall altcoin market.
During the same period, KAS’s price rose by 56%, adding $1.1 billion to its market capitalization. With a further 7% increase, KAS is poised to surpass its previous peak of $0.16, set on November 19th.
In comparison to the $108 billion growth in the total market capitalization excluding BTC and ETH, KAS has attracted approximately 1% of all capital inflows into the altcoin market in the past three weeks.
The rising price of Kaspa (KAS) can be attributed to the anticipation surrounding the upcoming Bitcoin halving. Industry experts predict that over 20% of Bitcoin miners will go offline when block rewards are halved in April 2024, leading many to redirect their resources to alternative proof-of-work networks like Kaspa.
Similarly, Optimism (OP) is a prominent layer-two blockchain on Ethereum that leverages the security of the Ethereum mainnet and offers enhanced scalability through optimistic rollups.
The surge in Optimism’s price is fueled by the increasing demand for DeFi services across the industry. Despite being relatively new compared to other scaling solutions like Polygon (MATIC), Optimism has quickly become one of Ethereum’s most sought-after scaling solutions.
With the demand for DeFi services continuing to rise, both Kaspa and Optimism are poised to reach new all-time highs in the coming weeks as investors flock to these promising altcoins.