Monera, BNB, Sui, AVAX, Chainlink Show Strength During Crypto Crash

The crypto market just took a body blow, and while the headline giants bled red across the board, a tight cluster of altcoins managed to keep their footing. Traders scanning heat maps during the February wipeout noticed something unusual: Monero, BNB, Sui, Avalanche, and Chainlink were falling  but not nearly as hard as the majors.

Market Bloodbath by the Numbers

Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the tide that lifts  or sinks  all boats. During the recent slide, total crypto market capitalization shed roughly 15-20% from local highs within days. Billions in leveraged positions were flushed as funding rates flipped negative and derivatives open interest contracted.

Yet relative performance told a more nuanced story.

While majors printed double-digit weekly losses, several mid-to-large cap alts limited drawdowns to mid-single digits or recovered faster on intraday bounces. In trader speak, they outperformed on a beta-adjusted basis. That’s catnip for funds searching for defensive rotation without fully exiting crypto exposure.

Monero: Privacy Premium Returns

When volatility spikes, a slice of the market historically hunts for fungibility and censorship resistance. That narrative boosted Monero.

On-chain activity and wallet growth have remained comparatively stable versus many speculative ecosystems. Even after the selloff, XMR held a sizable portion of its prior quarterly gains, signaling sticky holders rather than fast-money tourists.

Technicians also flagged that Monero defended long-term support zones while others sliced through theirs. Translation: sellers tried, buyers said not today.

BNB: Exchange Gravity Is Real

Tokens tied to trading venues benefit from built-in demand  fee discounts, ecosystem participation, and periodic burn expectations. When markets puke, traders still trade. That baseline utility can soften downside volatility.

Volume concentration data showed capital frequently parking in BNB pairs during peak panic hours. It became a liquidity hub, and liquidity tends to attract more liquidity.

Sui and Avalanche: Infrastructure Over Hype

High-throughput chains with active builder communities tend to fare better when speculation cools and investors refocus on survivability.

Sui maintained developer momentum and steady DeFi usage metrics relative to its size. Avalanche, meanwhile, continued to lean on its subnetwork narrative and institutional experimentation. Even modest continuity in these stats can create confidence floors during macro fear.

Chainlink: The Oracle Bid

LINK’s relative strength reflected continued demand for data infrastructure. Oracle services sit at the plumbing layer of tokenization, DeFi, and cross-chain applications. That makes them closer to picks-and-shovels than lottery tickets.

Wallet cohorts holding LINK for longer durations have grown compared with prior cycles. Reduced speculative churn often equals reduced crash velocity.

Rotation, Not Celebration

Let’s keep it a buck: outperforming a crash doesn’t mean moon mission.

Correlation across crypto remains high. If macro pressure intensifies or another liquidation cascade hits, these assets can drop fast too. But portfolio managers view relative strength as a signal of where conviction lives.

Right now, conviction appears to favor:

• real or perceived revenue linkage,

• infrastructure necessity,

• and durable user demand.

What Smart Money Watches Next

Pros are tracking exchange flows, stablecoin deployment rates, and whether rebounds come with spot volume instead of just derivatives leverage. If capital keeps rotating into the same names during dips, that trend could reinforce itself.