Returns vs. BTC in March: Bitcoin remains strong but a few small cap assets shine

March was not a kind month to…well, anyone, let alone the crypto markets. The anticipated repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic led investors in crypto and stocks alike to flee to the safety of the dollar.

Bitcoin was not immune to the downturn, falling almost 25% in the last 30 days. While Bitcoin did not quite act like an uncorrelated, safe-haven investment under severe market stress, which should not come as a surprise, its price has seen a significant recovery since it dipped below $4,000 on Mar. 12. This recovery is more apparent from an intra-class perspective, as Bitcoin has held up better than most other large-cap cryptoassets.

But there were a few small-cap coins that have outperformed Bitcoin (and the dollar) significantly over the last month. Considering their relative obscurity, it’s hard not to question why the price of assets like Streamr and Numeraire has doubled (and in Steamr’s case, quadrupled) in terms of satoshis.

While not discounting a potential increase in real user demand, both projects are amid major product releases, which tend to have a positive impact on token price. Streamr is close to releasing the first stable version of its product, a decentralized marketplace for data streams.

Numerai, the project behind the asset Numeraire, launched its long-awaited marketplace for information, called Erasure Bay, on Mar. 10. Numeraire is also relatively illiquid with less than $200,000 in Real Volume over the last 24 hours and, therefore, modest market movements can have an outsized impact on price, at least compared to most large and mid-cap cryptoassets.

Click here to see how other assets performed against BTC over the last 30 days and more.