Crypto Correlations Hit Record Highs as BTC-SOL Reaches 0.99

Ethereum emerged as the most connected asset, showing strong alignment with Cardano, Solana, and Dogecoin.

Analytics platform DefiLlama has reported an elevated degree of price synchronization among leading cryptocurrencies.

Over the past week, several major trading pairs showed correlation coefficients above 0.9, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) moving almost perfectly in sync at 0.99, suggesting a market in unison, with broad sentiment overriding individual asset stories.

Correlation Spike Highlights Bitcoin’s Grip on the Market

DefiLlama described the correlations between the largest tokens as being “unusually high” over the past week, a period marked by weak momentum across the market and repeated failures by Bitcoin to reclaim the $90,000 level.

Data shared on X shows BTC posting strong alignment with Ethereum (ETH) at 0.89, XRP at 0.86, Cardano (ADA) at 0.86, and Dogecoin (DOGE) at 0.87, while its link with Solana stood out at 0.99, the highest reading in the set.

That BTC–SOL figure suggests near-identical price movement, an uncommon pattern for an asset often treated as a high-beta trade relative to Bitcoin. Ethereum also showed broad alignment, with correlations of 0.95 against ADA, 0.93 against SOL, and 0.92 versus DOGE, making it the most consistently connected token across the group.

At the other end of the spectrum, BNB appeared the most detached from the rest of the market. Its correlation with Bitcoin was just 0.27, while links with XRP and SOL sat at 0.28 and 0.32, respectively. According to analysts, the data may suggest that BNB traders could be reacting more to chain-specific flows and exchange-related factors than to broader market moves.

Against this backdrop, BTC was trading at just under $90,000 at the time of writing, down about 2% over seven days, according to CoinGecko data. Meanwhile, Ethereum was hovering near $3,100, up by a marginal 0.6% in the last 24 hours, but completely flat across seven days, while XRP slipped about 4%, and Solana lost close to 3% in the same period.

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What High Correlations Mean for Traders and Altcoins

Periods of elevated correlation often appear when uncertainty is high, and liquidity tightens. With Bitcoin dominance near 57% and total market value falling toward $3.15 trillion, traders appear more focused on macro signals and U.S. monetary policy than on token-specific stories.

That dynamic can mute the impact of otherwise bullish developments. XRP, for example, has seen large holders increase buying activity and taker demand turn buyer-heavy, according to a recent CryptoQuant report. Yet the token continues to trade near $2.00, tracking Bitcoin’s hesitations rather than its own on-chain signals.

Ethereum is also showing a similar pattern, with analysts recently highlighting support holding near $3,000 and early signs of renewed ETF inflows. However, the asset is still struggling to break away from Bitcoin’s range-bound trading, and until correlations ease, such setups may struggle to play out independently.