XRP, Cardano race ahead as legacy tokens fall behind: What’s happening?

Cardano and XRP have made outstanding gains in the past two weeks.
Legacy tokens have made decent returns in November, but we must zoom out to better understand where the market conviction truly lies.

Ripple [XRP] and Cardano [ADA] stand at a market capitalization of $60.5 billion and $26.2 billion respectively and have been trading since 2014 and 2018.

They have stood the test of time so far, and are among the top trending altcoins that aren’t memes in the market.

The promise of cross-border payments and robust blockchain technology has attracted droves of investors to these tokens.

During previous cycles, such promises attracted users to other coins as well, which are now a lot less prominent in the public eye. What can be learned from their price action?

XRP, ADA — Not all coins are equally loved

Source: LTC/USDT on TradingView

Let’s take Litecoin [LTC], dubbed “the silver to Bitcoin’s gold” years ago. Since the lows on the 4th of November, LTC has been up by 35.14%.

For comparison, XRP has gained 114.2% and ADA rallied by 135.49% during the same period.

Moreover, while XRP and Cardano broke out beyond significant multi-month range formations to establish new highs, LTC was resolutely stuck within one that stretched back to late 2022.

While Litecoin’s weekly structure was bullish, the mid-range level posed resistance.

Source: EOS/USDT on TradingView

EOS has been trading since 2018 and has a market cap of $988 million. It, too, saw a weekly bullish structure break but is 98.2% down from its all-time high at $22.71 set in April 2018.

The token is up by 61% since last Monday’s lows.

Long-term conviction wavers

Source: SOL/USDT on TradingView

Since the 4th of November’s lows, Solana has gained a mere 41.8% and achieved a range-breakout and a weekly bullish structure. Does this make Solana and EOS comparable in the market’s eye?

Most definitely not! SOL is up by 2,650% from 2023 lows, while EOS is only 28.24% above 2023 lows. The point of this small comparison journey is that the sentiment of the past two weeks has been extremely bullish.

Bitcoin [BTC] setting a new all-time high beyond $74k has turned the crypto market to an up-only mode. This is sometimes called “easy mode” by veteran traders, and the strategy of “buy everything” can net sizeable gains.

Participants who joined the crypto sphere years ago and still hold legacy tokens have good reason to, but the market has moved on.

Newer, shinier tokens are out, and the past few months have been dominated by the meme and AI sector.

Read Ripple’s [XRP] Price Prediction 2024-25

The up-only mode of the crypto market does not mean EOS and Litecoin are comparable to Solana in terms of conviction.

The coming months might even yield favorable exits for holders who have been underwater for years. But the takeaway from this comparison is that, unless the asset is Bitcoin, never marry your bags.

Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice and is solely the writer’s opinion.