So far 2023 has seen a strong start for several altcoins. This is particularly exciting for investors after a dismal 2022 saw one catastrophe after another. Brand partnerships, better efficiency, and the Ethereum Merge have all been contributing factors in the upward price movements. Here are five of the top 25 ranked altcoins that have risen 10% or more in the first two weeks of 2023. 

1. ETH (+10.5%)

   The largest altcoin by market cap, ETH stands at $1,421 at time of writing, marking a 10.5% rise in the first two weeks of 2023. The upward price action comes on the heels of ETH’s December low of $1,161.

   Ethereum’s successful Merge from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake last summer allowed for more traffic to enter the blockchain, encouraging dApp development. Improvements such as data sharding compartmentalize data, making transaction executions quicker as well. The Merge also made the blockchain more environmentally friendly which pleased many investors.

2. ADA (+21.0%)

   With a 30-day low of $0.2415 on Dec 30, ADA traversed a steady uptrend reaching $0.3401 on Jan 8. Bears took hold in the last four days making the price touch down at $0.3294 at time of writing. Nonetheless, the 10.5% rise over the first two weeks of the year. 

   Development on the Cardano blockchain rose dramatically at the beginning of January after developers were away during the holiday break. Seeing more development activity on the network has pushed investors to buy more ADA. 

   Cardano also secured ADA as an accepted form of payment last year with brands such as Nessie’s and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson’s own hospital which receives medical payments in ADA. 

3. LTC (+10.4%)

   Over the weekend of Nov 6-7, 2022, when the FTX crisis began, LTC began dropping from $72.27 and reached $49.89 by Nov 9, a 90-day low. Since that time, Litecoin has steadily rebounded with bears only pulling the price down significantly on two different occasions. 

   Nonetheless, LTC has risen over the days since. LTC started Jan 1, 2023, at just under $70 and retains $85.25 at time of writing. Litecoin is an alternative to bitcoin in that it provides faster transactions with an average of 2.5 minutes with very low gas fees, making it an excellent crypto for smaller payment amounts. LTC’s hash rate increased after miners left Ethereum post-merge and began mining Litecoin.

4. AVAX (+24.6%)

   After reaching a 90-day peak of $20.28 on November 5, 2022, AVAX dipped to $12.84 by Nov 9  as the FTX dilemma began. With a downward trend leaving AVAX in the red for the entirety of December, AVAX started 2023 at $10.69 on Jan 1.

   With modest rises holding the cryptocurrency above $12 AVAX got a huge pop on Jan 11 with the announcement that Avalanche partnered with Amazon to support Amazon Web Services (AWS) dApp ecosystem. AVAX currently rests at $15.31 at time of writing.

5. ATOM (+16.5%)

As with most altcoins, Cosmos ATOM spent December 2022 in the red, hitting a month-long low of $8.62 on Dec 16. ATOM has risen steadily since then, starting Jan 1, 2023, at $9.36 and reaching $11.40 from Jan 8-9. It sits at $12.07 at time of writing. 

Much of the reason for the upward price movement of ATOM is due to the abandonment of its Euro-backed stablecoin EEUR project. Cosmos has spent the last two years on the project but with the crypto market in such dire circumstances in 2022 the team decided to discontinue it. 

This is a boon for the Cosmos blockchain because investors see the company reallocating resources to other projects that are better suited for its potential. Cosmos has a strong infrastructure and bills itself as a safe haven for complex projects to scale easily.

A rising cryptocurrency tide

Most, if not all, altcoins endured major selloffs in the aftermath of the FTX scandal. However, 2023 has seen a strong start for altcoins as developers come back to projects after the holidays, corporate partnerships are secured, and bad projects are discarded.

Investors know that a rising tide lifts all ships and these five coins are not the only ones to have seen huge spikes in the marketplace. Honorable mentions in the top 25 ranked coins that rose above 8% in the first two weeks of 2023 go to BNB (+8.7%), MATIC (+8.8%), DOT (+9.8%), and SHIB (+9.4%). 

SOL reached an incredible 19.3% rise in the same time period. However, the price action is less stable and Solana has a lot of technical challenges to overcome. The BONK price jump last week did contribute some to SOL’s uptrend but cannot support an elongated price elevation.

It remains to be seen how 2023 will pan out. There is much speculation online about whether these rising prices signal an end to the current bear market; it is certainly too early to make any conclusions on that. Investors should become over-excited about these price movements as the crypto markets are still extremely volatile. But if altcoin projects continue to find inroads into the broader market and partner with established brands they will increase their success.