The top 2 cryptos of April unmasked

Most altcoins joined Bitcoin in selling off last month. But these two bucked the trend.

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Key points

  • 90 of the top 100 cryptos finished April in the red
  • Most tokens followed Bitcoin's lead and sold off amid speculation of fast-rising interest rates
  • Two altcoins bucked the trend, gaining 64% and 89% respectively

Cryptos didn't have the best of months in April.

In fact, running our slide rule over the data from CoinMarketCap, only four of the top 100 cryptos by market cap returned more than 1% to investors holding the tokens last month.

Meanwhile, 90 of the top 100 virtual coins finished April in the red.

Like we said, not a great month, overall.

Bitcoin sets the crypto tone for April

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) set the broader tone, losing 17% over the 30-day period.

Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market came under selling pressure as investors repositioned their holdings ahead of a series of expected interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve and other leading central banks.

That repositioning also saw the tech-heavy US Nasdaq shed 14% last month as investors shy away from risk assets.

With that gloom out of the way, here are the two best performing cryptos of April.

This altcoin gained 64% last month

The second best crypto to have held during April is Kyber Network Crystal (CRYPTO: KNC).

Kyber kicked off April trading for US$3.14 and rounded off the month worth US$5.16 for a gain of 64%.

Indicative of the continuing volatility in the crypto world, Kyber traded as low as US$2.88 last month and as high as $US5.72 on 28 April, which also marked its all-time high.

If you're not familiar with Kyber, CoinMarketCap tells us it's "a hub of liquidity protocols that aggregates liquidity from various sources to provide secure and instant transactions on any decentralised application (DApp)".

Kyber has lost some ground in the first days of May, currently trading for US$4.56. That gives the crypto a market cap of US$880 million and ranks it as number 88 among the top 100 tokens.

Which brings us to…

April's top crypto performer

The best performing crypto to have held in April is ApeCoin (CRYPTO: APE).

ApeCoin was trading for US$12.79 early on 1 April and finished the month trading for US$24.21, an impressive gain of 89%.

Also highly volatile, ApeCoin traded for as low as US$10.57 in April and reached highs of US$26.91.

The first two days of May haven't been as kind to investors in ApeCoin, with the token retracing to US$17.08 at the time of writing. That's down 57% from the record highs hit on 17 March.

So, what is ApeCoin?

According to CoinMarketCap, "ApeCoin is an ERC-20 governance and utility token used within the APE Ecosystem to empower and incentivize a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3."

At the current price, ApeCoin has a market cap of US$4.8 billion, making it the number 29 crypto in virtual circulation.

The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Bitcoin. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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