SOL, XRP lead top altcoins as EOS and MANA soar

The crypto market is expecting Bitcoin price to break the $100k mark imminently, with analysts saying the altcoin season is next.

Meanwhile, Solana, XRP and Cardano have soared to new highs after the SEC Chair announced he will be leaving the agency on January 20.

Stellar, Algorand, and EOS are also trending up, with both posting double-digit gains.

These are tokens the SEC had labeled securities in its various lawsuits against crypto companies, including Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.

Crypto price updates

As noted, BTC broke past $99,000 and continues to dance around this level as traders anticipate a notable breakout above $100k.

Ethereum price holds above $3,300

In the altcoin market, the top 10 coins by market cap have edged higher on the day to add to recent gains.

Ethereum hovered above $3,300 despite a long-dormant ETH whale that held 398,889 ETH accumulated when Ether price was around $6, and sold about $224 million worth of the altcoin.

Solana price hits new all-time high

Solana is one of the coins to rally in the past 24 hours. SOL first broke $260 to hit a new all-time high of $264 before paring some gains.

With TVL hitting over $9.4 billion and bulls in the mood, the current price of $254 may be much cheaper today than in the coming weeks and months.

EOS gains 11.5%

EOS was among top altcoin gainers in the 100 largest by market cap. The altcoin that has lagged the rest of the market flipped bullish and traded 11.5% up in the past 24 hours.

EOS/USD traded around $0.73.

Decentraland (MANA) price

Nearly all sectors of the market have gained since Nov. 5 and the metaverse toke Decentraland followed suit on Friday.

MANA is the native token of the virtual reality network on Ethereum.

The uptick across Ethereum saw it add to recent gains with an 8% spike. The altcoin changed hands near $0.44.

Crypto news on Friday

Most crypto news headlines today have been about Bitcoin’s surge to near $100k – the benchmark cryptocurrency reached highs of $99,500 earlier in the day.

MicroStrategy and its BTC buying spree also dominated talk on X and across multiple markets-focused media platforms.

Away from the price action of BTC though, there have been a few notable news events. These include:

Donald Trump’s administration has eyes on a crypto advisory committee, as the pro-crypto Trump and his team look to make the US the crypto capital of the world.

Friday also saw reports that Trump’s team is considering former CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo for the role of “crypto czar”.

Meanwhile, crypto companies including Circle, Ripple and Kraken are eyeing a role in the anticipated crypto council.

The Blockchain Association wrote a letter to Trump urging the formation of the advisory committee among other priorities for the first 100 days.

Other top priority happenings the group urges the president-elect to look at include the appointment of a new SEC Chair to replace Gary Gensler.

The unpopular Gensler announced his resignation on Thursday and will depart on January 20. Incidentally, SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga is also set to step down on January 17, 2025.

Elsewhere, the Cboe has announced plans to launch the market’s first cash-settled Bitcoin index options.

Cboe Global Markets said the index options will reflect spot Bitcoin’s price and will go live on December 2, 2024. The news comes just days after spot Bitcoin ETFs options went live.

Polymarket has also reportedly halted services in France. This comes amid investigations after a French trader netted $45 million on a Trump victory bet.