Over the past few weeks, the large-cap altcoins have been seeing a surge in interest following the lackluster 2018 and 2019. During the past two years, these altcoins lost a considerable amount of value compared to bitcoin.

However, in 2020 they have been back with a bang, for instance, in comparison to Bitcoin’s 30% return on year-to-date basis, BSV has jumped 182%, Dash 133%, Tezos 123%, Ethereum Classic 101%, BCH 76%, Litecoin 73%, and Link 99% to name a few.

Price and DeFi take a Fall

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum is also fairing much better than Bitcoin which is up 98.35% so far in 2020.

Do you really think ETH dominance can stay at 10% for much longer ?
Outlined minimum targets.
BTW never seen a clearer FW structure. Bullish. pic.twitter.com/kGf4Cy7kHs

— CryptoWolf (@IamCryptoWolf) February 25, 2020

Currently, Ether is trading at $260.75 with 24 hours loss of 2.12% while managing the daily trading volume of $400 million on the top ten exchanges with real volume.

With the way the $ETHBTC pair is shaping up, it sure looks like $ETH wants to break down. pic.twitter.com/xpkZYwMkb2

— Jonny Moe (@JonnyMoeTrades) February 25, 2020

Also, just like the price, the total value locked in DeFi (decentralized finance) has taken a fall of 13%, going from $1.219 billion on Feb. 15 to $1.061 billion, as per DeFi Pulse. Ethereum locked in DeFi has also taken a hit. On Feb. 2nd, 3.191 million Ether was locked in DeFi which has now come down to 2.817 million.

Source: DeFi Pulse

Volume on the Rise

Ether trading volumes at the largest exchanges have been rising alongside price as volume reached recent weekly highs. Ether notional trading volumes jumped to July 2019 levels on US exchanges; Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Bittrex, Bitstamp, itBit, and LMAX Digital.

Source: TradeBlock

Among the exchanges that offer ETH/USD trading pair, LMAX Digital saw the greatest market share increase over the past year while Coinbase and Kraken maintain the largest market share still, states TradeBlock.

The week before last, the average ETH trading volume was 4 times larger than the average volume registered in the second half of 2019, suggesting that investors have been buying a lot of Ether. During this week, the fundamentals were strong as well, with the number of addresses with a balance in ETH reaching its ATH at 48.5 million addresses. Also, the net network growth of 41.8k addresses.

2020 Returns…
Ethereum Trust $ETHE: +359%
Virgin Galactic $SPCE: +223%
Tesla $TSLA: +119%
Enphase $ENPH: +119%
Beyond Meat $BYND: +67%
Bitcoin Trust $GBTC: +60%
Alteryx $AYX: +53%
Shopify $SHOP: +37%
Microsoft $MSFT: +19%
Amazon $AMZN: +17%
Google $GOOGL: +14%
Apple $AAPL: +11%

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) February 19, 2020

Alt Rally or Cleansing?

As analyst, Ceteris Paribus notes, “Implied vol on BTC options 3-month low while near 3-month high for ETH,” this means there is “a lot of uncertainty around the next move for alts.”

We have already been experiencing alt season but implied volatility could be traders expecting the next big move in altcoins yet again. “Re-establish the alt rally or continue the cleansing on btc pairs,” commented Paribus.

In other news, the aggregated ETH balance of ICO wallets has been continuously on the decrease.

Source: @Skewdotcom

The ETH balance was at its peak in January 2018 when Ether hit its all-time high at $1,570 and from there it has been on a decline.