Major tokens rallied on Tuesday as ceasefire optimism spread across risk markets.
Ether regained $2,029, up 2.6% over the past 24 hours, and once again broke above the $2,000 level that has served as a psychological pivot for weeks. Solana led the rally with 2.9% to $85.67. BNB added 2.6% to $639. XRP gained 1.7% to $1.37. Dogecoin trailed by just 1% and is still down 1.4% on the week, continuing to underperform the broader market with each bounce.
The catalyst was US President Donald Trump telling reporters on Monday night that the conflict with Iran would be resolved “very soon” and that US military objectives were “pretty well completed.” Asian stocks rose 2% after Monday’s 3.7% drop. Technology shares in the MSCI Asia Pacific index rose 3.5%. Oil fell from Monday’s rally above $100.
Analysts at Nansen said in an email that cryptocurrencies had “already absorbed the negatives and priced them in,” arguing that the market was responding to the headlines rather than a broader macroeconomic deterioration.
Institutional flow data supports that reading. CoinShares reported $619 million in crypto fund inflows for the week ending Friday, of which $521 million went into bitcoin products and total assets under management reached $108.3 billion.
That capital came during a week in which the S&P lost $1 trillion in a single session and the economy shed 92,000 jobs. “Bitcoin spot ETFs continue to attract capital even as the price weakens, suggesting institutional allocators are treating this as a tactical entry rather than a capitulation,” Ryan Kirkley, co-founder and CEO of Global Settlement, said in an email to CoinDesk.
Ethereum’s position above $2,000 is the one to watch this week. The second-largest cryptocurrency has been struggling to maintain that level since late February, with FxPro analysts pointing to $2,500 and the 200-week moving average as the zone that would confirm a genuine recovery rather than a series of dead-cat bounces. The gap between $2,000 and $2,500 is where the narrative shifts from “survive the decline” to “start a new trend.”
For Solana, the recovery has been structurally weaker. SOL remains roughly 55% below its cycle highs and has underperformed ether in every major bounce since the October crash.
The memecoin economics that fueled Solana’s 2024 rally has evaporated, and without that speculative engine, the token is trading more on macroeconomic sentiment than ecosystem activity.
XRP has been the most limited of the majors, fluctuating between $1.30 and $1.45 for most of March. ETF inflows have been positive and the legal clarity of the Ripple deal should be a tailwind, but the token has failed to detach itself from the broader market direction.
The Federal Reserve meeting on March 17-18 is shaping up to be the next real test.
Global Settlement’s Kirkley noted that the 90-day correlation between bitcoin and the S&P 500 has risen to 0.78, one of the highest readings since mid-2022. When bitcoin trades at the same pace as stocks, altcoins amplify every move in both directions.
An aggressive dot chart or any indication that rate hikes are back on the table would weigh more on the upper beta end of the cryptocurrency.
