Over the last few days, Bitcoin has rocketed up to $9,794.70, with altcoins such as Dash following suit. In the past few weeks, for example, Dash was up a whopping 32%, overtaking Monero as one of the top 10 coins at a certain point.
What is Dash?
Dash is a cryptocurrency. According to eToro,
“Unhappy with the transaction speed of bitcoin, Evan Duffield decided to found his own coin, seeking faster transaction speeds and more privacy.”
Like Litecoin, Dash aims to fix some of the issues seen on the Bitcoin blockchain. Dash has a total supply of 18 million DASH coins, and a market cap of $1,117,521,576, at the time of writing. It’s placed in the top 20 coins according to CoinMarketCap.
Dash is leading the way
Since January 10th, 2020, Bitcoin has seen a rally from $7,700 to the current price of $9,794.70.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) can help us identify a bull or bear market. A value above 55 indicates a bull market, while under 55 indicates a bear market. Bitcoin is currently sitting just below 55, so it hasn’t entered a bull market at the macro level yet.
However, Bitcoin’s surging price is pulling altcoins up alongside it. Dash is up a remarkable 32%, and seems to be leading the pack. The coin hit $136.51, the highest it has been since July 2019. While it’s currently sitting at $120, that’s still around 30% higher than it was a couple of weeks ago. Dash is now sitting at 17th place on the global cryptocurrency market ranking.
I’m not sure I understand the altcoin rally. Happy for those making money on it. But not sure what changed. Maybe new year, new money, new enthusiasm. Dinner in NYC for best explanation.
— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) January 15, 2020
What’s driving Dash’s surge is somewhat of a mystery. FXStreet recently reported that internet outages in Venezuela are helping to support Dash adoption, because it can be sent and received via SMS. However, various Twitter users have also highlighted the Dash Evolution rollout as a possible factor, after it brought major changes to the ecosystem:
Terry Langston noted,
“Dash Evolution rolled out huge (3 yrs in development) Name-based transactions that are private/secure. Dash DAPI platform & Dash Decentralized Storage utilizes leverages Dash decentralized PoService & PoW infrastructure (game changer). Dash Investment Foundation New Board member.”
Dash also has the ability to complete private transactions, which is becoming more and more of a concern for the contemporary crypto holder. Privacy coins like Monero are increasing in popularity, and it’s likely that something like Dash will follow suit soon.
From a technical point of view, Dash is overbought on all timeframes. The coin is likely vulnerable to a correction, though this is an incredibly volatile market so that’s not guaranteed.
However, Dash may not retest the recent high of $136,50. The next resistance is $186,50, which is the recovery high of 2019. So, is Dash leading the race to altcoin season? It seems like it at the moment – however, the market is volatile so things can change at any point.
Alts follow Bitcoin
Is Dash leading the race to altcoin season? At this point, yes. However, alts are following Bitcoin at the moment, and if the OG coin takes a dip, we’ll likely see the rest of the market plummet. It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that we’re expecting the Bitcoin halving in May 2020, and that will likely herald a major bull run for the entire market.
Whether or not Dash will lead that race remains to be seen, but it’s likely that we’re going to see some enormous shifts in the market. Take a good look at the top 20 ranking, because when the bull run hits things are going to change in a big way.
