TL;DR
- Bitcoin fails again at $90,000, logging at least six rejections. Its price remains trapped between $87,000 and $88,000 with no clear direction.
- The market enters a sideways phase after another failed attempt, with BTC below $88,000, dominance near 57%, and a market cap of $1.73 trillion.
- Ethereum and altcoins show weakness, although downside moves have remained limited.
Bitcoin once again runs into the same ceiling. The $90,000 level acted as a solid barrier yet again, exposing a market that is trying to move higher but lacks the strength to hold a breakout.
Over the past few weeks, BTC has been rejected at least six times in that area. The pattern repeats with precision: a quick spike, a marginal high, and an immediate drop back into the prior range, now concentrated between $87,000 and $88,000.
Bitcoin Continues to Be Rejected
The latest attempt followed the same script. Bitcoin briefly moved above $90,000, set a weekly high near $90,400, and pulled back just as quickly. Within hours, the price was back below $88,000. Market capitalization returned to the $1.73 trillion area, while dominance remains just above 57%. The market slips back into a sideways phase, with wide intraday swings but no defined direction.
Several analysts argue that if BTC fails to flip $90,000 into support, the risk is a repeat of a structure similar to 2019, marked by failed breakouts and a more extended corrective phase. At the same time, this difficulty in pushing higher aligns with a different structural interpretation.
Marginal Moves Across the Market
Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, argues that the halving has lost influence. Bitcoin no longer depends solely on it or on supply shocks. BTC is gradually integrating into the traditional financial system and responding to larger, slower-moving flows. Hougan describes the current environment as a ten-year grind, with more moderate returns and lower volatility.
Ethereum follows BTC without offering a different signal. It moved above $3,000 for a few hours before slipping back into the $2,960–$2,970 range. Support at $2,900 is holding, but recovery attempts remain capped by descending resistance and thinner year-end liquidity.
Altcoins show a similar picture. Over the past 24 hours, moves range from a marginal -0.2% for Ethereum to around -1% for Cardano. BNB trades at $851, XRP at $1.86, and SOL near $123.7, with a bearish double top on the weekly chart and declining on-chain metrics. TRX briefly touched $0.281, DOGE slipped to $0.1235, and ADA trades around $0.365.
The market is not in panic mode, but it also shows no clear signs of conviction
