Bitcoin (BTC) started the new month in strength and today’s run up to $59,053 suggests that bulls are beginning to shake off the fears stirred up by the Federal Reserve’s taper talks and the emergence of a new strain of Covid-19. 
Altcoins also saw their prices lift off and early hopes of a potential “Santa Claus rally” are making the rounds on crypto Twitter.

Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Request Network (REQ), Bifrost (BFC) and SafePal (SFP).
Request Network transactions hit an all-time high
Request Network is an Ethereum-based decentralized payment system that allows users to send and receive funds through secure channels without the need for an intermediary.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for REQ on Nov. 28, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. REQ price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for REQ climbed into the green zone on Nov. 28 and reached a high of 81 around 57 hours before the price increased 98% over the next day.
The spike in the price of REQ comes as activity on the network increases and the number of transactions surged 32% in November. The running tally has the transaction count up 46.34% over the last 30 days and 67.32% over the past 90 days.
Bifrost releases ChainRunner Q
Bifrost is a multichain middleware platform which allows developers to build decentralized applications (DApps) capable of operating on top of multiple protocols.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.35 in the early trading hours on Dec. 1, the price of BFC surged 56.84% to an intraday high at $0.556 as its 24-hour trading volume surpassed $130 million.
BFC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The jump in the price of BFC comes as the Bifrost protocol released its long-awaited ChainRunner Q protocol which provides users with access to pre-built decentralized finance (DeFi) strategies, as well as the ability to deposit, borrow, transfer, buy, and leverage their cryptocurrency holdings.
Related: Bitcoin correction weakest of 2021 so far as hopes of Santa Claus rally rise
SafePal adds support for nine new blockchains
SafePal is a cryptocurrency wallet that offers hardware and software options for investors holding assets from the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Tron ecosystem.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for SFP on Nov. 29, prior to the recent price rise.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. SFP price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for SFP spiked into the green zone on Nov. 29 and hit a high of 81 around 41 hours before the price increased 38% over the next day.
The climbing price of SFP follows the announcement that the project added support for Cardano, Nervos Network, Fantom, Avalanche, HECO Chain, Boba Network, Arbitrum and Optimism.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.67 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 41.2%.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.