Bitcoin Struggles Near $44,000 While Solana Surpasses BNB as Fourth-Largest Cryptocurrency

According to CryptoPotato, Bitcoin came close to $44,000 hours ago but was rejected and pushed south by about $500. Most altcoins traded quietly on Christmas Eve, but Solana experienced a significant surge, surpassing BNB as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency. Solana's native token has been at the forefront of the recent price rally among altcoins, with a 55% surge in the past week alone. On a daily scale, the asset is up by over 16%, skyrocketing to over $110 for the first time in almost two years. Other altcoins, such as DOT (8%), UNI (5.5%), NEAR (11%), OP (10%), and INJ (5%), also posted impressive daily gains. In contrast, ETH, XRP, ADA, DOGE, BNB, TRX, LINK, AVAX, MATIC, and TON experienced either minor gains or insignificant losses. On a weekly scale, massive price surges were observed from most of the aforementioned daily gainers, with SOL, NEAR, OP, and INJ leading with increases of around 50%. The total crypto market cap added $80 billion on a 7-day scale and sits well above $1.650 trillion. After a highly negative start to the business week, Bitcoin slumped to $40,500 for the first time in 5-6 days before starting its recovery on Tuesday and especially on Wednesday. It added over three grand in two days and jumped to well above $44,000 in the middle of the week. However, the sideways trading began at that point, as the bulls couldn't maintain the run above $44,000 but also defended the subsequent rejections. Bitcoin has been in a tight range between $43,000 and $44,000 for most of the past four days. Earlier today, the asset tried to take down the latter once again but was stopped inches away from it and now stands about $500 south of it. This, alongside the massive gains from some larger-cap altcoins, has harmed Bitcoin's dominance over the market, which is down to 51% on CMC. At the same time, Bitcoin's market cap remains above $850 billion.