Traders remained cautious as Bitcoin traded sideways above the $95,0000 support level throughout the day amid macroeconomic pressures.
Despite a slow day for prices, the total crypto market capitalization recovered to levels last seen on February 5.
In the past 24 hours, it was up 0.64% at $3.33 Trillion.
The same cannot be said about the crypto Fear and greed index which slipped to 43 for the first tie since mid-October 2024, reflecting a more hesitant sentiment among investors.
With Bitcoin in a period of consolidation, some small green candles popped up across the altcoin market but a bullish momentum was yet to take hold.
Why is Bitcoin moving sideways?
Market pundits agree that Bitcoin currently lacks a major catalyst that could help spark its next leg up.
Further, traders were also bracing for several key economic data for January that could greatly influence the price of the benchmark digital currency.
After being rocked by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China, Bitcoin faced fresh pressure as the market expected his recent tariff talk to turn into action.
On January 9, Trump floated the idea of a 25% blanket tariff on steel and aluminum imports, alongside reciprocal tariffs on all trade partners.
Now, with a formal announcement expected as soon as February 11 or 12, and steel tariffs potentially kicking in even earlier on February 10, markets are bracing for impact.
Bitcoin dropped to an intraday low of $94,761 after the news broke.
Traders are also awaiting key inflation data such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report expected on February 12, the initial jobless claims report, and the Producer Price Index set for the following day.
These numbers matter because they directly influence the Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rates.
If inflation comes in lower than expected, markets could price in more aggressive rate cuts, potentially weakening the U.S. dollar and fueling risk-on sentiment, good news for Bitcoin.
However, if CPI rises to the upside, it could force the Fed to slow down or even pause its rate-cut cycle, which would strengthen the dollar and weigh on risk assets, including BTC.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is also expected to testify before Congress on February 11-12, offering the latest insights into monetary policy.
What’s next for Bitcoin?
Currently, Bitcoin needs to hold above $95,000 to avoid further decline according to market experts.
According to André Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise Europe, BTC is currently facing heavy selling pressure last seen during the 2022 bear market.
However, he stressed that it has continued to show resilience despite the current “seller exhaustion” which positions the broader outlook as bullish.
Yet, it needs to stay above $95,000 which has acted as a crucial support range over the past week, as a drop towards $93,000 could introduce additional pressure that could see it fall towards $91,500 according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.
Roughly 2.16 billion cumulative leveraged long positions across all exchanges would be liquidated if Bitcoin drops below $93,000, as suggested by CoinGlass data.
However, if inflation data shows signs of cooling, some analysts expect prices to test higher.
For instance, prominent trader Michaël van de Poppe expects a retest of the $105,000 resistance level this week, which would transpire to surge of over 8% from current levels.
The futures market is also betting on a potential upside for BTC in the short-term according to market commentator exitpump.
Over $1 billion in open interest, mostly dominated by long positions was added today.
Typically this means traders are betting on Bitcoin’s price moving higher.
As of press time, Bitcoin had stabilized around $97,000 after hitting a daily high of $98,334.
Top altcoins manage to stay profitable
With Bitcoin moving sideways some liquidity entered the altcoin market but gains were restricted to only a few of the mid-to-high-cap altcoins across the top 100 chart.
The total altcoin market cap went up from $1.24 to $15 trillion in the past 24 hours but broader sentiment reflected by the altcoin season index slipped a point to 34. Bitcoin continued to dominate the market as the key driver.
Meanwhile, the top tokens to post gains on the day were:
Litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) led the highest gains over the past week among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
It traded 10.9% higher over the past 24 hours, reaching an intraday high of $118.56 after breaking out of the $97–$109 consolidation range, where it had been trading for most of the week.
Source: CoinmarketCap
Over the past day, Litecoin’s market cap also soared to $8.87 billion while its daily trading volume doubled to over $1 billion as of press time.
Litecoin’s price rise can be primarily attributed to anticipation surrounding a potential spot ETF launch by the end of this year.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely to approve Litecoin’s case, due to its similarity with Bitcoin.
As a result, the crypto community largely expects the agency to approve the spot ETF, with Polymarket data indicating an 81% probability of approval by 2025.
Bittensor
Over the past 24 hours, Bittensor (TAO) climbed 10.3%, trading at $394.97 at the time of publication.
The AI coin’s market cap was standing at over $3.5 billion while its circulating supply stood at around 8.21 million.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Today’s gains may be driven by excitement over the upcoming Dynamic TAO launch on the Bittensor mainnet.
The upgrade replaces the old emission model with a market-driven one and introduces subnet tokens, allowing miners, validators, and subnet owners to earn rewards based on staked TAO.
Multiple analysts have noted that TAO has formed a falling wedge pattern on the daily chart and appears ready for an upward breakout above the pattern resistance.
In technical analysis, such a breakout is considered a bullish signal and could lead to further gains in the short term once confirmed.
Stacks
Stacks (STX) was up 6.2% over the past day, exchanging hands at $0.97 while driving its market cap to over $1.45 billion at the time of publication.
Following the recent gains the altcoin was positioned as the 74th largest crypto asset in the market overtaking other major projects in the crypto industry such as Raydium, Immutable, and Injective.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Most of these gains likely came following news that Stacks founder Muneeb Ali bought $10 million worth of STX tokens.
The community expects him to keep holding them since he’s expressed his confidence in Stacks’ future, which has fueled bullish sentiment among investors.
The post Crypto recap: Bitcoin hovers near $97K as LTC and TAO lead daily gains appeared first on Invezz
https://invezz.com/news/2025/02/10/crypto-recap-bitcoin-hovers-near-97k-as-ltc-and-tao-lead-daily-gains/
