Bitcoin (BTC-USD) eclipsed $100,000 per coin for the first time ever on Wednesday night, sparking a rally across the cryptocurrency.
The latest move higher in bitcoin came after President-elect Donald Trump picked Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins has been seen as a crypto-friendly pick for the position.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is now up more than 40% since the election. But an even more aggressive rally has been taking place in other crypto tokens. Ethereum (ETH-USD) is up almost 60% while smaller tokens like Ripple (XRP-USD), Cardano (ADA-USD), and Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) have rallied triple digits.
CoinDesk Indices head of product Andrew Baehr told Yahoo Finance the larger move in the smaller cryptocurrencies is likely because they have more regulatory hurdles to cross than bitcoin, which already has ETFs attached to it.
“The other assets count more on regulatory pavement,” Baehr said. “Think about things like smart contracts, stablecoins, future of finance, Web3, things that will change our lives in the future: They need the regulatory pavement.”
Baehr added that for regular investors looking for a small amount of crypto exposure in the broad portfolios, that doesn’t mean buying into the risk-on rally in smaller coins is the way to go.
“You really have to be in the weeds to track [the smaller coins],” Baehr said. “And timing is almost impossible.”
