On-chain data shows altcoins like XRP and Solana are observing a higher amount of investor loss relative to their market caps than Bitcoin.
XRP & Solana Are Observing A High Value On The Relative Unrealized Loss
In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has talked about how the Relative Unrealized Loss compares between the various top coins in the cryptocurrency sector. The “Unrealized Loss” is an indicator that keeps track of the total amount of loss that’s held by investors as a whole on a given digital asset network.
The metric works by going through the transaction history of each coin on the blockchain to determine the last price at which it was involved in a move. If this previous transfer value was more than the current spot price for any token, then that particular token is considered to be held at an unrealized loss right now.
The exact amount of loss held by the coin is naturally equal to the difference between the two prices. The Relative Unrealized Loss, which is the version of the metric that’s of relevance here, sums up this difference for all loss tokens and finds what percentage of the market cap that it makes up for.
A counterpart metric called the Relative Unrealized Profit finds the same for the profit portion of the supply. That is, the tokens that have a cost basis lower than the current spot price. Now, here is the chart shared by Glassnode that shows the trend in the Relative Unrealized Loss for the four top cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana.
Looks like the indicator has gone up for all of these assets in recent months | Source: Glassnode on X
As is visible in the above graph, the Relative Unrealized Loss has witnessed a rise across the sector during the last few months. This increase is a natural consequence of the bearish price action that the various assets have seen in this window.
While the trend has been more-or-less uniform, the indicator’s value has differed in scale for the coins. Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two cryptocurrencies largest by market cap, have the metric sitting at relatively modest levels of 11.9% and 16.6%, respectively. Meanwhile, XRP and Solana have faced much heavier losses, with the Relative Unrealized Loss at 31.8% and 54.8%, respectively.
“The elevated loss levels in altcoins reflect how heavy the top is in these markets, where supply is more concentrated among buyers who entered near cycle highs,” explained the analytics firm. While the altcoins are facing high levels of losses, they are still lower than those observed at the lows of the 2022 bear market. XRP isn’t too far off, but Solana’s losses remain magnitudes lower.
XRP Price
At the time of writing, XRP is floating around $1.35, down 2% in the last seven days.
The price of the coin has retraced from Tuesday's high | Source: XRPUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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