During the month of April 2021, the performance of altcoins significantly outperformed that of bitcoin.
This was revealed in an analysis by crypto exchange OKEx that compares the market trends and performance of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in April 2021.
In fact, in mid-April BTC had reached its new all-time high at $64,800, but the subsequent decline saw the month-end with even negative returns. In the meantime, however, high-risk assets generally rebounded as US Treasury yields fell.
Furthermore, while sentiment was bullish prior to Coinbase’s listing in mid-April, the market lost momentum after the listing, although ETH closed with its eighth consecutive month of gains and the market sought returns from altcoins.
Finally, decentralized exchanges posted record volumes, while top-tier DeFi tokens made big gains.
The dollar index fell significantly in April, dropping from 93 to around 90 before rebounding towards the end of the month, and the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds fell from a high of 1.75% in March to a low of 1.53% in April.
This prompted investors and traders to look for new sources of profit, and altcoins in particular benefited from this.
Bitcoin has underperformed altcoins and global assets
Indeed, from a returns perspective, bitcoin underperformed global assets in April, with a monthly decline of 3.62%. In contrast, the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite, for example, both continued to rise at a healthy pace, posting monthly returns of 5.3% and 5.4% respectively. The Bloomberg Commodity Index also made a strong monthly advance (+8.3%) and gold prices also rose 3.6% over the month as the dollar weakened.
In other words, risk assets advanced strongly as Treasury bond yields fell, with the exception of BTC.
ETH, on the other hand, posted its best monthly gain of the year, following that of January, and further pushed the altcoin season to another peak. Blockchain Center‘s altcoin-season index reached a high of 98 in mid-April, the same as at the beginning of 2018.
Among altcoins, the biggest player was Dogecoin, up 487% in April, while XRP rose 186% and ETC 167%.
The main DeFi tokens also performed well, with MKR up 103% and COMP up 80%. UNI, the token of the Uniswap DEX, also performed well, with a monthly return of 42%.
Some blockchains compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine took off in April, with Polygon (formerly Matic) posting +128%, and Fantom +74%.
So overall there were many altcoins that significantly outperformed bitcoin in April, with the alt-season index around all-time highs.
