Loom Network, Ontology, Simon’s Cat lead as Bitcoin stalls

Cryptocurrencies held steady on Saturday as the recent momentum among risky assets waned.

Bitcoin (BTC) retreated to $63,000 from this week’s high of $64,000 while the total market cap of all coins remained at $2.2 trillion. 

Other risk assets wavered, with the Dow Jones rising by 27 points and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices falling by 0.25% and 0.29%, respectively. As we wrote on Friday, this price action was likely because of the triple-witching event, where options worth over $5.1 trillion expired. 

Loom Network led gains as open interest rose

Loom Network (LOOM), recently delisted from Binance, was one of the best-performing altcoins as it jumped to $0.0668, its highest swing since July 22 and up by 61% from its lowest point this year.

Loom soared as its 24-hour volume jumped to over $174 million, higher than its market cap of $80 million. Its open interest in the futures market jumped to over $27 million, its highest level since March 27, and higher than this month’s low of $4.7 million.

Ontology Gas (ONG) was also one of the top tokens on Saturday. It soared for five consecutive days, reaching its July high of $0.387 with its market cap reaching $142 million. Like Loom Network, ONT’s open interest rose to $15.7 million, the highest level since June 7.

Fundamentally, Ontology’s ecosystem has not done well in the past few years as the total value locked in its DeFi ecosystem has dropped to $7.1 million from a record high of $374 million in 2021.

Simon’s Cat jumps to a record high

Simon’s Cat (CAT) was the other top-performing token, surging to a record high of $0.000040. According to Nansen, the token’s market cap has soared to over $297 million while its exchange volume rose to $168 million, its highest level since Sep. 12. 

Simon’s Cat price and volume | Source: Nansen

Simon’s Cat also jumped as the number of token holders rose to 217,680 in the last 24 hours while the number of tokens in exchanges dropped to 1.85 trillion from last week’s 1.87 trillion. A drop in the number of tokens in exchanges is a positive thing since it means that more people are storing them in wallets. 

The other top-performing cryptocurrencies were ARK, which rose by 23%; Powerledger, and Theta Fuel, which rose by 20% and 8%, respectively.

Mother Iggy, Neiro on ETH, Billy, and Cat In A Dogs World were the most notable laggards.