Bitcoin traded sideways within a tight range this week, with bulls finding stability between the $103k–$105k range amid a more favorable regulatory stance emerging in the US crypto sector.
Despite some mid-week volatility, the crypto market quickly absorbed all the dips as Bitcoin retested the $100k support level several times.
The overall crypto market capitalization saw modest growth, moving a little over $5.5% to $3.8 trillion when writing.
Several top altcoins posted decent gains by Friday, but broader altcoin market sentiment remained cautious, reflecting a lack of confidence across the board.
However, multiple bullish developments transpired over the past 7 days that could reignite momentum for both Bitcoin and altcoins, potentially driving the market higher in the coming days.
Will Bitcoin go up?
Bitcoin has already printed a new all-time high of $108,786 and remains steady above $100k, but some developments suggest it could soon enter price discovery.
Firstly, early in the week, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed cooler-than-expected inflation data, with the core Consumer Price Index dropping from 0.3% in November to 0.2% in December.
On an annual basis, core inflation eased from 3.3% to 3.2%.
With inflation pressure softening, traders are hopeful that the Federal Reserve might adopt a more dovish stance during its next meeting.
Meanwhile, returning president Donald Trump is also pressuring the regulator to cut rates, which traders perceive as a bullish signal.
Second, acting SEC Chairman Mark Udeya has established a crypto task force that will collaborate with the crypto industry to develop regulations that could finally clear the regulatory fog that has long hindered institutional adoption and broader market growth.
Trump advocates are hopeful that “SEC 2.0” could finally put an end to the securities debate, a move that could especially be a boon for altcoins.
Third, another boost for crypto adoption came with Trump’s decision to drop SAB 121, a controversial rule that prevented banks from offering custody services to the crypto sector.
Pro-crypto moves brought back buying pressure from institutional players which supported Bitcoin’s rally this week.
Roughly $3 billion flowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs over the past six trading days, marking a streak of consecutive inflows.
If the momentum continues, it could help support Bitcoin’s next leg up.
Market pundits are speculating green days ahead.
Analyst Miles Deutscher, in a Jan 24 X post, highlighted that retail interest is currently at its lowest in 3 years despite BTC trading above $100k.
When retail interest begins to pick up, it often leads to a surge in trading volumes and heightened market activity, amplifying price momentum.
Meanwhile, pseudonymous crypto analyst Exit Pump pointed to the current low Open Interest (OI) relative to Bitcoin’s price as a sign of a potential upcoming breakout.
Low Open Interest at elevated price levels often indicates that many traders are sidelined or hesitant to enter the market, creating the conditions for a sharp move when momentum builds.
If new liquidity flows in, it could push Bitcoin to achieve a new all-time high as the market dynamics realign, the analyst added.
The rally, however, would happen after the selling pressure eases a bit.
According to well-followed trader Crypto Rover, long-term holders were selling at current prices.
Something that is a common occurrence when Bitcoin marks a new all-time high.
However, he added that once the selling pressure eases, we could see a rally towards $200,00.
At press time, Bitcoin was selling for $105,898 per coin, up nearly 3% over the past week.
Altcoins recovered this week
The altcoin market recovered from last week’s downturn, with the overall sector’s market cap rebounding nearly 8%.
Early-week gains were largely driven by Trump family-themed meme coins, Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania Meme (MELANIA).
However, by late trading hours on Friday, most of these gains were erased as profits rotated into more prominent projects.
The altcoin season index reflected a lack of confidence in altcoins, with the metric down 3 points from the 50 recorded last week.
Yet, the top gainers managed to record double-digit gains by the end of the week. The leading cryptocurrencies were:
Raydium
Over the past week, Raydium (RAY) rallied 38.9%, reaching a 37-month high of $8.62 on Jan. 24, marking the highest gains recorded during this period among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Source: CoinMarketCap
The Solana-based DEX token’s market cap was seated at nearly $2.4 billion when writing.
This week’s gains were fueled by a surge in its network volume, driven by the launch of meme coins associated with the Trump family, such as Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania Meme (MELANIA).
According to DeFi Llama, Raydium processed a record $60.18 billion in volume last week, even surpassing all centralized exchanges.
Raydium has also been actively supporting the RAY token through its ongoing token buyback program.
On Jan. 21, the platform repurchased 1.6 billion tokens, increasing the total buyback to 55 million tokens.
This accounts for approximately 10% of the total token supply now being held in buybacks.
Marinade Staked SOL
Marinade Staked SOL (MSOL), a liquid staking solution on Solana rose 22.5% over the past week.
The altcoin bounded to an all-time high of $363.77 on Jan. 19 before settling at $336.83 at the time of publication.
Its market cap was standing at $1.43 billion with a circulating supply of 4,265,874 tokens as of Friday.
Source: CoinMarketCap
MSOL’s recent gains could likely be attributed to the renewed investor interest in staking Solana with Marinade after the company was selected as one of the projects in the Cohort 2 program of the Solana Incubator.
The project will now receive financial and technical support from Solana Labs, enabling it to enhance its infrastructure, expand its offerings, and attract more users to its liquid staking platform.
Solana
The fifth largest crypto asset by market cap, Solana, bounded 19.6% over the last week to make it to this list.
The altcoin hit a new all-time high of $293.31 on Jan. 19 before parting some of its gains and settling at $263.02 at the time of publication.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Solana’s weekly performance was solely linked to the performance of the decentralized exchange Raydium.
Per DefiLlama, Solana’s TVL reached a new all-time high of over $12 billion on Jan. 19, surpassing $10 billion for the first time since November 2022.
The altcoin also rallied after the go-to blockchain for meme coins saw the launch of two official Trump family-linked meme coins, namely TRUMP and MELANIA which brought in an influx of retail users.
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