Cryptocurrency market overview: altcoins run the show

• Cryptocurrency market picture is mixed.
• Bitcoin is glued to $4,000 handle.
• Tron is an obvious leader of the day with over 19% gains.

The cryptocurrency market is a mixed picture today with some major altcoins including Ripple's XRP, TRON (TRX), EOS, Cardano (ADA), and DASH growing strongly despite Bitcoin's sluggish consolidation. The altcoins' rally took the total cryptocurrency market capitalization to $138B from Wednesday's low of $136.3B.

Bitcoin is hovering around to $4,000 handle. The largest digital coin is mostly unchanged both on a daily basis and since the beginning of Thursday. Depressingly low volatility keeps BTC squeezed in a narrow range limited by $4,050 on the upside and $3,980 on the downside.

Ethereum, the second largest coin in Coinmarketcap's rating, lost 1.5% of its value since this time on Wednesday to trade at $151.67 by the time of writing. ETH/USD is pressured down by the upcoming Constantinopole upgrade; however, the short-term trend remains bullish as long as it stays above $150.00 handle.

Ripple's XRP, the third largest coin by market capitalization, has gained over 3% on a day-to-day basis. The coin tested area above $0.3900 during early Asian hours, however, the breakthrough was not confirmed as it returned to $0.3800 fairly quickly amid profit taking on speculative positions. XRP/USD is changing hands at $0.3798 at the time of writing.

Tron (TRX) is still the best-performing altcoin with nearly 20% of gains on a day-to-day basis. TRX surpassed Tether by market value and took the 8th place in Coinmarketcap's rating. The coin's capitalization is registered at $2B; an average daily trading volume is creeping closer to $400M which is twice as much as at the beginning of the week.

Read more about TRON momentum