While bitcoin and ether were flat on Wednesday, altcoins rose higher.
Litecoin and XRP were each higher by about 5%, according to Coin Metrics, while the Sandbox token jumped 4%. The price of the Axie Infinity token added about 8%.
On Wednesday Ripple, the global payments company behind XRP, announced its acquisition of Metaco, a Swiss crypto custody services firm. The deal is expected to give Ripple access to clients like Citi and BNP Paribas and expand its overseas presence.
Crypto price action has been relatively subdued for the past month, despite volatility coming back a bit recently due to thin liquidity in the market. Still, realized 30-day volatility for both bitcoin and ether are off their record lows of the year, according to Glassnode.
With that, some investors have shifted their attention away from bitcoin and toward smaller and newer tokens, or “altcoins.” This is a recurring period in the bitcoin cycle known as “altcoin season.” In recent months, bitcoin and ether have been regarded by many as so-called “blue chip” or “flight to safety” assets in crypto.
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