Bitcoin approached $70,000 on Wednesday before returning to around $68,300 during Thursday morning trading, a change of nearly 5% between the session high and the overnight low of $67,700.
This is the strongest attempt to reclaim the $70,000 level since the February 5 crash, but it did not result in a clean breakout.
The most interesting story was below. Altcoins outperformed across the board, with ether up 8.5%, solana up 6.9%, cardano up 10.8% and dogecoin up 8.3%. Bitcoin’s 4.3% gain was among the smallest in the top 10.
This type of divergence typically signals a return of risk appetite to market margins, where traders look for higher beta moves once they believe the worst of the selling has been realized.
“The wave of forced sales is starting to dissipate,” ZeroStack CEO Daniel Reis-Faria said in an email. “Altcoins are outperforming again, and more of them are ahead of bitcoin. That tells me we’re seeing a rotation.”
This rebound was accompanied by a muted reaction to Nvidia’s quarterly results, which beat estimates but failed to sustain a recovery. Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.3% after the report, and Nvidia shares erased most of their post-earnings gains to rise just 0.2% in extended trading.
The world’s most valuable company raised concerns about an overheating AI economy, tempering what had been a days-long rally in technology stocks.
At the same time, the macroeconomic backdrop remains fragile for continued movement in crypto markets. Market maker Wintermute noted that cryptocurrencies were losing ground alongside tech stocks as capital shifted to defensive, tangible assets.
Crypto finance platform Matrixport has flagged stagnant stablecoin supply as a “significant hurdle” for bitcoin, and on-chain data firm Glassnode expects broader liquidity to return in six months at the earliest.
The short-term risk is simple. Cryptoquant data shows that sales have slowed on Binance, supporting the case for a near-term rebound. Elsewhere, crypto exchange Bitrue warned that a break below $60,000 could pave the way for a move towards $50,000 – $55,000, or even $47,000 if cascading liquidations accelerate.
The gap between the short-term rebound and the medium-term trend remains wide – and Wednesday’s rejection to $70,000 did nothing to close it.
