Markets
Bitcoin Rose 4% This Week and Still Trailed Most of the Market
Of the 54 large coins we track on Binance, about 45 outperformed Bitcoin over the past seven days. The median gain was close to 14%. Gold and the euro, meanwhile, both slipped about 2%.
By most standards Bitcoin had a decent week: up about 4.2% to around $84,550, in the upper half of the $74,970-$87,400 range it has held over the past month. Ether did less, adding about 2.4%.
Against the rest of the crypto market, though, that was a weak showing. Across the 54 large, actively traded coins we track on Binance, the median seven-day gain was roughly 14%, and about 45 of them — five in every six — beat Bitcoin. The list at the top is long and varied: Fetch.ai up 39%, Sei 38%, Bitcoin Cash 35%, Sui 33%, NEAR 30%, and a string of others above 20%.
Weeks like this say more about risk appetite than about Bitcoin. When traders feel confident, money tends to move out along the risk curve into smaller, more volatile coins, and Bitcoin's share of the market slips even while its price rises. The reverse is also true, which is why broad altcoin outperformance is worth noticing rather than celebrating.
Avalanche is the week's reminder that the table depends on the starting point. AVAX jumped about 55% in four sessions, from around $7.60 on September 17 to a high of $11.80 on the 21st, then eased back to about $10.90. Measured from last Sunday's close near the top, it shows a 3.4% loss; measured from ten days ago, it is one of the best performers in the market.
Outside crypto, the dollar had the stronger week. Tokenized gold (PAXG) fell about 2% to roughly $4,280, and EUR/USD slipped by a similar amount to around 1.139.