7 cryptocurrencies performed better than Bitcoin in January.

Seven cryptocurrencies performed way better than Bitcoin during January’s market volatility.

HOT, the native token of Holochain project, surprised the cryptocurrency community with a 178% price surge. Augur’s REP followed by posting a 51.50% monthly gain. Chainlink’s LINK came third after rising 39%, while Numeraire’s NMR became the fourth most profitable crypto asset after ballooning 35%. Tron’s TRX, Loopring’s LRC, and OAX’s token of the same name swelled between the range of 31-33% in the same time.

BITCOIN FELL CLOSE TO 10% DURING JANUARY 2019 | SOURCE: TRADINGVIEW.COM

In contrast, Bitcoin had lost close to 10% of its value by January’s close. However, the digital currency still fared better than a majority of top ten cryptocurrencies. Ethereum’s Ether, for instance, fell 27.59% in a month. Bitcoin Cash, an anti-Bitcoin crypto project, also failed to compensate its post-fork losses; it dropped up to 30% in January.

Other than Tron, only Litecoin managed to post profits – a humble 1.87% – among the top ten coins.

#1 HOT Better than Hottest Cryptocurrencies?

A $100 investment in the HOT token would have returned $1,780. Could it get any better?

HOT PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BINANCE, TRADINGVIEW.COM

Holochain, the backer of the HOT token, started rising against the general cryptocurrency market trend from the very beginning of 2019. At that time, Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings, a US-based independent asset rating agency, named HOT among the cryptocurrencies with the most positive outlook. On the day of the mention, Holochain confirmed that their trade volume rose by 381%, mostly against Bitcoin and Ethereum as quoted assets.

Weiss also mentioned Holochain alongside EOS and Cardano for their potential to create internet 3.0.

“Most will eventually fail. But the potential prize is enormous,” it stated. “If the most advanced cryptocurrencies succeed in creating Internet 3.0 as proposed, they could someday be worth trillions of dollars in market cap.”

From the technical point of view, HOT appeared as a safe hedge against a falling Bitcoin. A new project expects to receive more attention and HOT has been in the trading space since July 2018. In the long run, Holochain’s sustainability as a project would define HOT’s real value. February would see whether or not traders play more upside bets on the coin’s higher high formations. But based on the historical price actions seen in various cryptocurrencies, HOT should correct actively to the downside.

#2 Augur’s REP Strong on Veil Derivatives Launch

AUGUR REP PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BITTREX, TRADINGVIEW.COM

Bulls noted Augur’s REP token soon after the project launched Veil, its peer-to-peer prediction market and derivatives platform built on Ethereum mainnet. Later, the project also received investment from 1Confirmation – a venture fund created by Nick Tomaino and backed by Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Mark Cuban.

In only seven days after the launch followed by the 1Confirmation’s announcement, the REP/USD rate surged more than 100% – from 8.226 to as high as 20.644. However, unlike HOT/USD, the pair underwent a sharp downside correction in the second half of January – bringing its monthly gains to a halt as they touched 51.50%.

REP is now preparing new upside moves, having found a new support area around $10.974.

#3 ChainLink’s LINK Steadily Rising Since Early December 2018

ChainLink’s January performance does not surprise given its history of surviving the November 2018 crash and building a steady upside momentum ever since. Compared to other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, the LINK/USD rate rose and corrected organically than in a rush.

CHAINLINK’S LINK PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BITTREX, TRADINGVIEW.COM

As a project, ChainLink develops tamper-proof inputs and outputs for smart contracts on any blockchain. The company works with Swift, a global messaging system for settling cross border payments, in their Smart Contract innovations. Gartner has rated them as the leader of the smart contract development industry. The reputation helps ChainLink attract clients in the form of established firms and startups alike.

A strong business model explains why LINK, ChainLink’s native token, stayed strong despite the market-wide sell-offs. From the technical point of view, the LINK/USD have recently broken below their rising channel formation. But, a secure support area above 0.3583 is capping the pair’s downside attempts.

#4 Numeraire’s NMR Close January on 35% Gains

NUMERAIRE NMR PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BITTREX, TRADINGVIEW.COM

Numeraire is another smart contract enabled tool that surged 35% in January purely because of its underlying credentials. The project conducts weekly competitions among machine learning enthusiasts. Those with the best prediction models take away rewards in Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, NMR acts like a staking and betting token for participants. If they win, they take home more NMR tokens. Ultimately, Numeraire creates a unique form of employment for data scientists in a booming machine learning industry.

The NMR/USD rate kicked off January while trading at 2.289 and closed the month at circa 3.236. Technically, the pair underwent a choppy price action but remained inside an ascending channel formation – similar to ChainLink. Traders could have exchanged hands for NMR due to its sustainable use-case in Numeraire platform. In the long term, the coin could pose itself as a safe hedge against bitcoin’s bearish action.

#5 Tron’s TRX Riding High on BitTorrent Token Airdrop

TRON TRX PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BINANCE, TRADINGVIEW.COM

Tron has been the most successful top-ten cryptocurrencies in January 2019, rising 33%. The cryptocurrency was also in positive through most of 2018 owing to favorable marketing. According to its blockchain explorer, Tron blockchain is now posting more transactions than that of Ethereum.

More developers adopted Tron as a blockchain to develop their dapps is faster transaction confirmations and no fees. Atop that, Tron acquires BitTorrent, a widely popular file-sharing platform. The project later announced that it would airdrop BitTorrent’s BTT tokens among TRX holders. That explains why traders ignored selling their TRX holdings throughout January.

Technically, the TRX/USD rate trended inside a symmetrical triangle pattern, giving analysts no clue as to where it would head the next. The pair is still inside the range; it is reaching a bias-conflict scenario.

#6 OAX Token Airdrop Leads to Gains – and Losses

OAX PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BINANCE, TRADINGVIEW.COM

OAX, a decentralized digital asset exchange, was distributing its tokens for free among the participants during the first half of January 2019. The airdrop concluded on January 15, after which OAX/USD experienced a surge from 0.091 to 0.23 in just six days – almost 60%. However, a correction ensured that wiped 52% of OAX value against the dollar by the end of January – a common scenario after crypto airdrop events.

#7 Loopring’s LRC at 33.34% Monthly Gain

LOOPRING LRC PRICE CHART | SOURCE: BINANCE, TRADINGVIEW.COM

Loopring, a protocol for decentralized crypto exchange, posted a 33.34% surge in the value of its native LRC token. However, like OAX, the LRC/USD bullish sentiment exhausted near a post-pump peak point. The pair established a monthly high at 0.1104 before dropping to as low as 0.0532 in a bearish correction.

Nevertheless, Loopring is maintaining a stable support area at 0.0376-0.0323. The levels have seen increasing bullish sentiment, which is why traders are likely to play their short trades towards them before kickstarting the next bull wave.