Bitcoin, Ethereum trend amid ‘Extreme Fear’ – But THIS signal warns of caution

The global crypto market is showing modest signs of improvement after facing a volatile phase amidst increasing U.S-Iran tensions. Now, as the weekend is about to end, Santiment presented a list of coins trending, which includes top coins and a few altcoins in the space. 

Ethereum and Bitcoin steal the spotlight

Starting with the largest altcoin, Ethereum [ETH], which was outperforming others. This surge in traction comes as there were various Ethereum accounts that were examined for “quantum‑computing risks to ECDSA signatures”.

Additionally, with the Ethereum Foundation staking thousands in ETH, the community was paying heed to Vitalik Buterin’s creation.

On top of that, Santiment also highlighted: 

Charles Schwab’s announcement to offer direct spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum to its large client base.

Needless to say, Bitcoin [BTC] was trending, too, thanks to its “Google Quantum AI whitepaper and broad media coverage”, fueling debate about “Bitcoin’s long‑term exposure to quantum attacks”.

On the back of Bitcoin’s long-term health, its current price action due to the Middle East tensions also added to BTC’s growing chatter.

Other altcoins that are trending and why

Adding to the list is Chainlink [LINK], which, due to various large on-chain movements and a recent “quarterly unlock of roughly 19M,”  is catching people’s eye. 

However, the active address mapping of BTC, LINK, and ETH shows a major drop in retail activity. This shows that despite a rise in trends, the metrics are not in favour, and investors are still cautious. 

That said, Solana [SOL], too, was trending but somehow for the wrong reasons. The recent Drift Protocol exploit, which drained about $270–286 million and impacted over 20 Solana projects, was the major reason behind the rise in attention.

On the other hand, mentions of Pippin [PIPPIN] are surging, but if looked at deeply, this memecoin is trending only because of “community hype rather than traditional fundamentals”. 

Confirming this sentiment was the social volume metric of both tokens, which was on a decline.

Who is ruling the stablecoin market?

Lastly, in the stablecoin market, Circle’s USDC was trending, but there, too, the plot twist was that there have been about 15 incidents where large USDC transfers were tied to hacks/exploits.

However, the transaction volume of USDC shows that it’s still outpacing Tether’s USDT and others. 

All this combined paints a confusing picture of the crypto market where neither sentiments nor metrics are in sync with the other. 

In conclusion, adding more tension, Coinbase analysts recently flagged an upcoming risk to the crypto market ahead of U.S President Donald Trump’s April deadline on the Iran deal.

Final Summary

• A list of coins is trending on Santiment, but still, on-chain metrics are drawing a different conclusion.
• Some coins are trending because of good reasons, whereas some traction is tied to exploits and hacks.