The year of crypto, as 2021 was called, produced a litany of record-breaking figures for bitcoin (BTC) and the wider altcoin market. Trading figures surpassed expectations, decentralised finance (DeFi) came to the fore, Tether became ground-zero for the regulation debate and major scams like Squid Game Token garnered mainstream coverage.
Among the headlines and controversies, many of the most established cryptocurrencies soared to set all-time highs (ATHs) during the two unprecedented bull runs that girded the mid-section of the year. As most readers will know, what followed was a prolonged downturn that continued well into 2022, as billions were wiped from the market.
However, as of 3 March, bitcoin is up 20% against the week, lifting the altcoin market up with it. Whether the rebound continues remains to be seen. Regardless, bitcoin remains well below the ATH witnessed in November 2021, even if the bulls and bears continue to play tug-of-war above and below the trendline.
What is certain is that every one of the top-100 cryptocurrencies has a way to travel before they manage to surpass their respective crypto all-time high targets, if indeed they manage to reach them at all.
But what can the latest crypto all-time high data and the position of large- and mid-cap coins in relation to their ATHs say about the cryptocurrency market in general? Can the numbers help us get a clearer picture of how certain coins react to an uncertain market? To find out, we collated cryptocurrency all-time high data (using blockchaincenter.net) from the 100 largest tokens and made some comparisons. Here is what we found. (Note that stablecoins have been excluded from the following analysis).
