Ether, Solana Hit 19-Month Highs as Bitcoin Rally Halts with Traders Fearing 'Bull Trap'

• Ether, solana rallied to new 2023 highs as bitcoin dipped to $43,000.
• Bitcoin traders fear "bull trap," growing fear could propel BTC towards $50,000, Santiment said.

Bitcoin's [BTC] rally halted Thursday, ceding the stage to cryptocurrency majors ether [ETH] and solana [SOL] which led the crypto rally after surging to fresh 19-month high.

BTC dipped to $43,000 during the day following its breakneck climb to near $45,000 earlier this week, suggesting that traders took some profits after the largest crypto's breakout from $38,000 a week ago. Recently, bitcoin was changing hands at around $43,300, down 1.1% over the past 24 hours.

ETH, meanwhile, popped 5% over the same period and hit $2,372, its highest level since May 2022.

Its rally drove up the prices of other ETH-adjacent cryptocurrencies, making them the best performers of the day. Ether classic [ETC] appreciated 6%, while liquid staking protocol Lido's governance token [LDO] increased by over 11%.

Native tokens of Ethereum scaling networks Optimism and Arbitrum also gained 22% and 9%, respectively, during the day.

Solana [SOL] jumped over 8% to $69, the highest since May 2022, following a three-week cool-off since its mid-November local top. Arthur Hayes, crypto investor and BitMex exchange founder hinted at a $100 price target, speculating about a bullish weekend for altcoins in social media platform X (formerly Twitter) post on Tuesday.

The CoinDesk Market Index [CMI], which tracks a market capitalization-weighted basket of almost 200 digital assets, was slightly up 0.6%.

Traders fear bitcoin 'bull trap'

Crypto analytics firm Santiment noted that BTC's flattening price coincided with traders increasingly calling for a potential "bull trap," a short-lived rally that bates investors back to the market before a major downtrend.

"Traders are fearful that crypto markets may be in a bull trap at the moment," Santiment posted on X (formerly Twitter) Thursday, citing social media metrics.

The growing disbelief could actually help propel BTC further toward $50,000, Santiment said, squeezing shorts who are betting on lower prices.

"FUD [fear, uncertainty, doubt] could propel BTC to $50K if it increases," the firm added.