3 Altcoins Breaking the Bearish Trend: Why ATOM, ZEC, and ASI Surge

Key Notes

• ATOM, ZEC, and ASI outperform the market with strong double-digit moves despite broader crypto weakness.
• Each token’s surge is tied to fresh catalysts: ATOM’s ecosystem updates, ZEC’s treasury and wallet developments, and ASI’s ongoing AI-alliance momentum.
• These gains highlight how selective narratives can drive standout altcoin performance even in a choppy market.

Crypto heatmap today, on Nov. 20, looks greener than during the bloodbath at the start of the week. However, major coins have not yet recovered: BTC $90 887 24h volatility: 0.9% Market cap: $1.81 T Vol. 24h: $89.72 B is still hovering around $91k, while ETH $2 995 24h volatility: 1.9% Market cap: $361.05 B Vol. 24h: $38.27 B is down 2% to $3k.

Let’s follow Michael Saylor’s advice to stay bullish and look at the coins that outperform the crypto market today, posting visible gains.

Cosmos (ATOM): the best altcoin to buy now?

Cosmos (ATOM) has surged 14% in the recent 24 hours to $3.11, making it one of the best altcoins to buy today . Recent ecosystem headlines have turned more constructive after fall turbulence. A November network maintenance on major Korean exchange Bithumb that restored ATOM deposits/withdrawals underscored steady infra support, while community discussions about channeling Interchain Security (ICS) revenues into ATOM buybacks have rekindled token-economics debate, both helping sentiment at the margin.

Cosmos was created by Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman to build an “Internet of Blockchains.” The 2016 whitepaper laid out the stack (Cosmos SDK, IBC, and what’s now CometBFT/Tendermint). The Cosmos Hub launched in 2019 as the first zone. Messari’s 2024 primer details ATOM’s role in security, fees, and governance.

Zcash (ZEC): privacy coin gains over 8%

Zcash (ZEC) is up 8.6% to $672 at the time of writing, making it the second-best-performing altcoin today.

ZEC has benefited from specific catalysts, including reports of fresh treasury accumulation and new wallet features (e.g., shielded swaps in the Zashi wallet stack ). Those narratives helped ZEC decouple in a few sessions this month.

Launched in 2016 by the Electric Coin Company, Zcash pioneered zk-SNARK-based private transactions . The NU5 upgrade (May 2022) introduced the Orchard pool built on Halo 2, removing the trusted setup and modernizing its privacy architecture.

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI)

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) gained 9.6% and is trading around $0.32. The ASI token, tracked under the FET line on major price sites, has rallied at points on renewed AI-crypto momentum and ongoing exchange support for migration/conversion behind the alliance (e.g., conversion rates for OCEAN→FET). The bigger AI narrative around the merger keeps speculative interest elevated even as parts of the alliance evolve.

ASI is the result of a high-profile 2024 initiative to combine Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol into a single token economy, aimed at building an open, decentralized AI network. The Financial Times chronicled the merger’s goals and delays; subsequent coverage has tracked changes to the coalition’s makeup.

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