Altcoins rally as Bitcoin and Ethereum trade sideways

Bitcoin and Ethereum have been trading sideways after their early 2026 gains, but several alternative coins are posting big weekly numbers. Experts say this shows investors moving money into riskier plays while waiting for important economic data.

XRP and Solana are up nearly 10% and 7% over the past week, CoinGecko data shows. Sui, Bittensor, and Shiba Inu did better, with gains between 14% and 17% in the same period.

Bitcoin’s having a different week. Its year-to-date gains got cut in half to 4%. Ethereum followed a similar path, falling from over 11% to nearly 4%.

Marcin Kazmierczak, who co-founded RedStone, told Decrypt this is a typical pattern. “The altcoin rally reflects a classic rotation pattern—capital flowing toward perceived upside optionality when macro uncertainty peaks,” he said.

According to Kazmierczak, Solana and XRP are riding specific storylines, but the move is “largely sentiment-driven rather than fundamental.”

The buzz around top altcoins includes money flowing into the spot Solana ETF and speculation about a potential XRP ETF approval in 2026.

Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, told Decrypt that “this may be why these tokens have seen more interest.” Smart money is sitting in a ‘wait and see mode,’ he added. They need more good news before jumping in.

Bitcoin’s been consolidating while altcoins move.

Some big catalysts are coming up

Yuya Hasegawa, a crypto analyst at Bitbank, told Decrypt the dates to watch are the U.S. employment report on the 9th and the Consumer Price Index on the 13th.

Good data could push Bitcoin toward $98,000, Hasegawa noted. That’s an important technical level. But there’s also a downside gap in CME futures near $88,000 that could get tested if numbers come in weak. He expects “meaningful support” at that level though.

Whether altcoins can keep rising without broader market help isn’t clear.

“Heading into the weekend, we can expect continued volatility,” Kazmierczak said. “Alt jumps are quick to reverse without follow-through volume.”

Next week should tell more. The U.S. economic data coming out will show how institutions are thinking about risk and whether the market can start climbing again.

Morgan Stanley filed Tuesday for Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana exchange-traded funds. It’s the firm’s first move into crypto ETFs, coming two years after these funds became popular in the U.S.

The paperwork includes a Bitcoin Trust and a Solana Trust. Each one holds the individual cryptocurrency. The Solana product would stake a portion, which means earning rewards by letting tokens support the blockchain network. Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. would sponsor these trusts, according to the filings.

Early Wednesday, Morgan Stanley filed for an ETF holding Ether, the second-largest token. That one will also do staking, the filing showed.

Digital dollar transactions broke records last year

The broader crypto infrastructure continues expanding. The Trump administration’s friendlier stance on crypto helped push volumes up. Stablecoin transactions jumped 72% to $33 trillion in 2025, per Artemis Analytics. Circle’s USDC did $18.3 trillion. Tether’s USDT hit $13.3 trillion.

What’s interesting is that decentralized platforms actually lost market share. That means regular people and businesses are using stablecoins, not just crypto traders.

Anthony Yim from Artemis said it shows “mass adoption of digital US dollars, especially in an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape.”
People in countries with bad inflation are grabbing stablecoins as an easy way to hold dollars, Yim added.

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