Bitcoin Holds Ground as Altcoins Lose Gains Amid ETH Struggles

Market Overview and Bitcoin’s Consolidation

After a strong rally over the weekend, driven by renewed optimism around the EU–US trade deal, Bitcoin experienced a cooling off period on Monday. The price of Bitcoin consolidated below $119,000, with momentum shifting towards Ethereum and the broader altcoin market. Despite this, the overall market sentiment showed a significant improvement, reaching a monthly high of 75, which indicates a strong appetite for risk among investors.

The total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency sector briefly surpassed the $4 trillion mark before settling at $3.9 trillion. This fluctuation was influenced by losses across both Bitcoin and altcoins. However, the dip in prices did not necessarily signal a negative trend. Instead, it appeared to be a healthy consolidation following the previous rally, likely due to profit-taking by short-term traders and increased caution ahead of the upcoming FOMC meeting.

By late Asian trading hours, most top altcoins had given up their weekly gains, with only a few managing to hold onto modest single-digit profits. This shift highlighted the growing focus on Ethereum and other altcoins, as traders adjusted their strategies in response to changing market conditions.

Why Is Bitcoin Stuck?

Bitcoin bulls attempted to reclaim the $119,000 level multiple times throughout the day but ultimately retreated towards the $118,000 support band. A sharp wave of liquidations triggered the correction, primarily concentrated around the $119,000 level, which put downward pressure on the price. According to derivatives data, Bitcoin saw over $55.6 million in total liquidations in the last 24 hours, with more than $41.5 million coming from long positions. This suggests that many traders were betting on further upside, but were caught off guard when the price stalled.

The Bitcoin 24-hour liquidation heatmap revealed a dense band of liquidation activity between $118,800 and $119,800, indicating a heavy concentration of leveraged long positions. When Bitcoin failed to sustain a breakout above this zone, a chain reaction of automatic sell orders was triggered as long positions were forcibly closed by exchanges due to margin calls. This event was amplified by elevated speculative activity, with derivatives volume surging over 100% to reach $71.38 billion in the past 24 hours, while open interest rose to $85.67 billion.

As the price declined, it entered another liquidation-heavy zone around $117,800 to $118,200, which has since acted as a temporary support. This area helped stabilize the price during late trading hours. Beyond technical dynamics, broader macroeconomic uncertainty also played a role in dampening sentiment. Traders entered Monday’s session with increased caution ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which is set to conclude on Wednesday.

Equity and crypto markets remain attentive to any signals regarding the Fed’s interest rate path. While market participants expect no change at this meeting, commentary on possible rate cuts later in 2025 could influence market movements. A dovish tone may fuel another leg higher, while a neutral or hawkish stance could restrain risk appetite. For the rally to continue, traders will be watching for a clear break above $119,800, the upper edge of the high-risk liquidation zone. This level has historically acted as a key resistance, and reclaiming it would signal renewed strength and reduce the risk of further long-side liquidations.

Analysts’ Perspectives on Bitcoin

Some market analysts have flagged this level as a key area to watch. BitBull, for example, suggested that Bitcoin is playing with another major resistance trendline and believes that the price will soon break through the $119.5K level. The analyst also noted that the upcoming FOMC meeting is likely to be dovish, which could be bullish for the markets.

Pseudonymous analyst Galaxy also pointed out that Bitcoin is currently holding above a long-term diagonal resistance line that has historically capped its major bull runs. In a July 28 post on X, Galaxy suggested that this breakout could mark the beginning of a new phase of price discovery. Similarly, trader Crypto Tony stated that Bitcoin remains on track for new all-time highs as long as it can hold above $117,000, describing the current price action as a tightening phase with bullish potential.

Rekt Capital highlighted Bitcoin’s recent weekly close at $119,450 as a possible confirmation of a bull flag breakout. The analyst noted that turning this level into support via a retest could occur next week, but emphasized the importance of avoiding an upside wick beyond the Bull Flag Top resistance.

Meanwhile, well-followed market commentator Ali shared a chart indicating that Bitcoin’s hourly chart has flashed a buy signal on the TD Sequential indicator, suggesting a potential short-term rebound. This indicator is often used to identify potential trend reversals or exhaustion points, and the buy signal emerged after a nine-candle downward sequence, signaling selling exhaustion and a possible price turnaround.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $118,129, down 0.6% in the past 24 hours.

Altcoin Market Performance

The altcoin market cap rose 4.8% over the past 24 hours to an intraday high of $1.74 trillion before a sell-off ensued, bringing it down to $1.63 trillion. Ethereum (ETH) rallied for the third straight day, crossing the $3,900 mark earlier today for the first time this year before losing most of its gains and falling back to a little above $3,800 as of press time.

Ethereum, the leading altcoin with a market cap of $461 billion, has gained nearly 57% over the last 30 days, far outperforming Bitcoin, which has only managed to hold gains of around 10%. Continued strong inflows into Ether ETFs for the third week now point to a shift in market sentiment, which could continue to improve investor confidence ahead.

For context, the spot Ether funds have drawn in $1.85 billion in inflows this month, over twice that of their Bitcoin counterparts. If these products continue to see such massive inflows, they could bolster a bullish outlook for Ethereum.

Despite the bullish momentum seen lately, Ethereum is still stuck under a key resistance level, notably the $4,000 mark, at which it has faced rejection multiple times since the beginning of this year. Analysts note that until ETH manages to close above that level, bears will continue to be in the game.

Market commentator Ted pointed to dense ask-side orders just above the $3,900 level, noting that Ethereum is “being pulled like a magnet” toward the $4,000 level, where a large cluster of liquidity is waiting. Fellow trader ZYN echoed a similar bullish outlook for ETH, suggesting that the altcoin has broken out of a short-term consolidation phase and could target $4,300 by the end of this week.

Ethereum has been leading broader market rallies in recent sessions and could reignite gains if it breaks convincingly above the $4,000 mark. But for now, its failure to breach that key resistance has weighed on sentiment, with most altcoins giving up earlier gains and only a handful holding on to modest single-digit profits.