Bitcoin Held Steady Above $26K Over Weekend; XRP, LTC Buck Market Trend

Major cryptocurrencies traded flat over the weekend with alternative tokens showing muted price movement as markets seemed to stabilize following one of the largest liquidation events in recent months.

As of Asian afternoon hours, the bitcoin (BTC) price remained steady at over $26,000, with ether (ETH) little changed from Sunday’s $1,670. Xrp (XRP) lost some 2% while litecoin (LTC) rose 2%. The two were the only ones among majors to buck a flat-market trend.

Meme coin shiba inu (SHIB) slid 2%, increasing losses to more than 21% in the past week following the botched launch of its Ethereum layer 2 network Shibarium. Transactions stalled in the hours after the network went live last Wednesday, with over $1.7 million worth of tokens in a bridge, or a tool used to transfer tokens between two blockchains, said to be stuck owing to a bug in the code.

Some gainers among altcoins include optimism (OP) and rollbit coin (RLB), each buoyed by increased user activity. RLB jumped 18% in the past 24 hours, extending a multiweek trend as protocol usage shows no signs of slowing.

Bitcoin investors are continuing to load up on the asset because the price is considered to be discounted relative to fundamentals, according to Michael Silberberg, head of investor relations at AltTab Capital.

“We've been seeing increased Bitcoin futures trading lately," Silberberg said in an email to CoinDesk. "While there has been more open interest on the short side, there has also been accumulation in both directions as the market moved sideways in thin liquidity. This means many traders were betting on Bitcoin's price movement.”

“Despite this drop, we still saw net inflows over the past week as long-term investors, like ourselves, saw discounted prices as an opportunity to accumulate more Bitcoin,” Silberberg said.