CRV, the native cryptocurrency of the decentralized lending and borrowing protocol Curve Finance, was the best performer among the top 100 altcoins. The price of CRV rose by about 10% in the last 24 hours, but fell back to the $1 level due to the drop in Bitcoin price.
This development came amid a lack of strong performance from many cryptocurrencies since the start of the week. Let's analyze how this altcoin is leading the pack.
CRV whales are holding on
Yesterday, Curve's price was around $0.98. However, it then surged to $1.17, outperforming other altcoins in the market. CRV particularly outperformed other DeFi-based tokens like Aave (AAVE) and Ethena (ENA).
According to the analysis by BeInCrypto, CRV's strong performance is mainly driven by the psychology of short-term holders. Data from IntoTheBlock shows that the number of short-term CRV holders has increased significantly in the last 7 days.
These addresses represent unique wallets that have acquired the altcoin within the last 30 days. The increase in such addresses indicates a positive outlook on short-term price appreciation, and a decrease would suggest the opposite. Therefore, the increase in short-term holders could continue to drive CRV's value higher.
Additionally, on-chain data on sentiment suggests that crypto whales have also played a role. Generally, when whales accumulate more tokens, the price tends to rise, while their selling leads to a decline in the cryptocurrency's price.
As seen in the image below, the balances of Curve (CRV) addresses holding 1 million and 10 million tokens have increased.
On December 5th, the balance of these addresses was $368.24 million. Today, it has increased to $376.38 million. If this trend continues, CRV's price could continue to rise.
CRV price prediction: Potential bounce if Bitcoin price recovers
On the 3-day CRV/USD chart, the Bull Bear Power (BBP) is maintaining a positive territory. BBP compares the strength of buyers (bulls) and sellers (bears). When the indicator's value is positive and there are green histogram bars, the bulls are in control.
Conversely, red bars indicate the bears have the upper hand. In the case of CRV, the former is true, suggesting the altcoin's value could continue to rise.
If the trend continues, CRV can maintain its position as a top altcoin and target above $1.35, potentially reaching as high as $1.70. However, if the bears take control, this DeFi protocol's token could drop to $0.62.
