Crypto price recap: Bitcoin slips to 4-month low, IP, TIA buck bearish trend

After two failed attempts at breaking past $90,000, Bitcoin continued dumping to multi-month lows as the market remained rattled amidst economic concerns.

The sell-off that started over the past weekend following the Bybit hack continued to intensify, and the crypto market fell over 3.2%, bringing the market cap to $2.96 trillion.

Crypto fear and greed index, which is one of the most popular indicators for gauging market sentiment, hit 21, its lowest level since September last year.

Altcoins, however, bounced back from the previous day’s losses, with several top 99 tokens breaking away from the bearish mood weighing on Bitcoin traders.

Why is Bitcoin crashing?

Bitcoin dropped to a four-month low of $85,445 as market jitters grew over US tariff policies.

President Donald Trump hinted at potential tariffs on copper imports Tuesday, following his earlier confirmation that 25% duties on Canada and Mexico would take effect next week.

Beyond trade concerns, the crypto market also faced pressure from mounting fears of a US economic slowdown, fueled by a string of weak consumer sentiment reports.

Making matters worse, US-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw massive outflows, with investors pulling $1.01 billion on Tuesday alone—the biggest single-day exit since March 2024, right after spot ETFs launched. 

Retail traders often see large institutional outflows as a signal of weakening confidence, which can trigger further selling or hesitation in buying the dip. This further amplified Bitcoin’s downturn, especially with broader economic uncertainty keeping risk appetite low.

Bitcoin could dip below $80,000

Gauging the current scenario, a number of analysts expect the flagship cryptocurrency to drop even lower. 

One such bearish signal came from analysts at Singapore-based blockchain firm Matrixport, who believe that ongoing economic pressures could push Bitcoin down to its next support level at $73,000.

Adding to the bearish outlook, Bitcoin’s demand appears to be fading, signaling weaker risk appetite among investors. 

Data from market intelligence firm CryptoQuant shows a sharp drop from 279,000 BTC on December 4 to just 10,000 on February 26, a sign that short-term holder and retail interest had faded.

This decline also mirrors the broader trend of shrinking macro liquidity, which, if it continues, could push Bitcoin even lower.

BTC price: consolidation ahead

A number of analysts pointed to the possibility of Bitcoin entering a Wyckoff reaccumulation phase, suggesting that the current price action could be part of a broader consolidation before another leg up. 

Chart patterns shared by market observers highlight a potential “spring” phase, which, if confirmed, could see Bitcoin rebounding toward the $100,000 mark after testing key support levels.

Others diverted attention to the growing M2 global money supply as a catalyst that could trigger a major Bitcoin rally. 

Historical trends suggest that rising liquidity and lower interest rates often drive Bitcoin prices higher.

According to economist Lyn Alden, Bitcoin follows global M2 movements 83% of the time, reinforcing the idea that increasing money supply could fuel a recovery.

Crypto analysts echoed this view, with bitcoindata21 suggesting that weakness in the dollar could have a positive impact on global M2, potentially benefiting Bitcoin.

Another bullish signal comes from Bitcoin’s daily Relative Strength Index (RSI), which has dropped to levels last seen in August last year.

Crypto influencer Carl Moon pointed out that the last time Bitcoin’s RSI reached similar lows, the price surged by 120% in the months that followed.

At publication time, Bitcoin was trading at $87,821, up 0.9% amidst some moderate dip buying.

Altcoins deviate from market trend

The altcoin market cap surged over 7% in the past day to hit a high of $1.3 trillion on February 26, while the altcoin season index went up two points from the previous day to hit 27.

A lot of the day’s gains were dispersed across small-cap tokens, while a number of the top 99 tokens also posted double-digit gains.

The top gainers for the day were:

Story

Story (IP) has continued its uptrend for the second day with gains of 42.38% over the past 24 hours.

The altcoin was exchanging hands at $6.78 while its market cap was seated at $1.68 billion at press time.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Most of the gains came as its community went bullish as IP broke out of a descending parallel channel pattern that kept its price in a downtrend between Feb. 21-25 while flipping the $6 resistance level into a support floor.

The project’s recent partnership with AI generative model developer StabilityAI also drove further hype in its community.

Adding to the momentum, Story Protocol’s RWA platform, Aria, acquired and tokenized part of the copyright for ‘The Truth Untold,’ a song by BTS and Steve Aoki, bringing one of the world’s most popular songs into the blockchain’s RWA IP space.

Celestia

Over the past 24 hours, modular Layer-1 blockchain Celestia (TIA) rose 26.2%, rebounding from its recent downtrend, the altcoin saw over the previous 2 days.

Its market cap has once again reclaimed the $2 billion mark while its daily trading volume almost doubled, hovering over $253.44 million.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Developers have been working to scale Celestia to 1 GB blocks.

According to the latest results from its Mammoth Mini testnet, shared by Celestia Labs, it successfully handled 88 MB blocks with an average throughput of 27 MB/s, which is a big leap from the current 2 MB blocks every 12 seconds.

Next up, the Mammoth Mini testnet will transition into a public testnet, and if all goes well, the mainnet launch is expected in 2025—pending community approval.

Quant

Quant (QNT) was up 15.4% over the past day as it broke above a tight consolidation range of $85-$100 since early February this year.

Over the last 24 hours, QNT rallied up to $108.05, accompanied by its market cap jumping to $1.3 billion.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Part of these gains likely comes from growing demand among derivatives traders betting on its price.

According to CoinGlass data, open interest in the QNT futures market jumped 25% in the past day, reaching $14.92 million.

Meanwhile, its weighted funding rate turned positive, indicating that most of these bets were bullish on the altcoin.

Based on social media chatter, traders were also betting on the growing prominence of Overledger, an enterprise-focused blockchain interoperability platform powered by Quant.

The post Crypto price recap: Bitcoin slips to 4-month low, IP, TIA buck bearish trend appeared first on Invezz