Analyst | Crypto

With attention spilling into multiple other technology sectors, crypto may struggle to capture a strong, price-driving narrative, a crypto analyst says. Bitcoin may not need a new story or catalyst to push back above the psychological $100,000 level, which it has not traded above in nearly five months, according to MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe. ‘“There doesn't need to be a narrative that pushes the price upwards,” van de Poppe said in an X post on Friday, after asking, “What narrative will bring Bitcoin to $100K?” “Price moves upwards, and the narrative will create itself,” van de Poppe said, adding: Read more

Bitcoin was “rejected” from the $80,000 price level, which is its next resistance zone on the way to reclaiming the $100,000 psychological price level. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) could bottom out at the $57,000 level in October 2026, despite rallying by more than 29% since the low of about $60,000 in February, according to Bitcoin investor and author Michael Terpin. Terpin told Cointelegraph that his forecast is based on the “historical average” drawdown of about one year from a market cycle top, which was reached in October 2025 when BTC surged to an all-time high above $126,000, to the cycle bottom. Bitcoin’s price needs to reclaim the $100,000 level for the bull market to resume, which will likely occur when the price falls below the 200-week moving average, a dynamic and critical support level, he said. Terpin added:  Read more

MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe doesn’t expect Bitcoin to drop below $75,000 in the near term, even as Polymarket traders price in a different outcome. Momentum from Bitcoin’s recent rally could spill into the altcoin market, which could see gains of as much as 60% if Bitcoin continues to rise, according to a crypto analyst. “I think this leg has enough room to continue to $86K, and altcoins to run 30-60% from here,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said on Thursday.  A move to $86,000, a level Bitcoin hasn’t seen since Jan. 28, would represent about a 10% increase from its current price of $77,890, according to CoinMarketCap data. Read more

Volatility and upside have been declining with each Bitcoin halving cycle, but the new dynamics may not be permanent, according to Galaxy's Alex Thorn. The current Bitcoin (BTC) market cycle is “dramatically” weaker than the three previous cycles, according to Alex Thorn, the head of firmwide research at investment firm Galaxy. Thorn compared price action since the April 2024 Bitcoin halving to cycles triggered in 2012, 2016 and 2020; the current cycle shows significantly dampened volatility and lower upside. The all-time high above $125,000 on Oct. 5, 2025 was only 97% above the 2024 halving price around $63,000. BTC’s price increased by about 9,294% during the 2012 halving cycle, reaching a high of about $1,163, and climbed by about 2,950% during the 2016 halving cycle, reaching a high of about $19,891. The 2020 halving saw a price increase of about 761%. Read more

Bitcoin trades below the profitability threshold for active holders, with early signs of BTC demand offering limited price support for now. Bitcoin (BTC) hit range highs above $76,000 on Wednesday, but Glassnode analysts say data suggest that calling for the start of a new bull market is premature.  New capital inflows have stayed weak, with Bitcoin’s growth rate remaining negative across all 105 trading days in 2026, highlighting a gap between stable price action and limited new demand. Glassnode analyst CryptoViz.art uses the true market mean (TMM) to estimate the average cost basis of active BTC investors. The metric divides investor capitalization by liveliness-adjusted circulating supply, filtering out inactive coins and the lost supply. Read more

Fallout from the Iran war will likely weigh on markets for much of 2026, dashing hopes of rate cuts until Q3 by the earliest, the Coin Bureau's Nic Puckrin said. Now almost a week old, the Bitcoin (BTC) recovery is “fragile” as the crypto market faces geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds from the ongoing war in the Middle East, according to Nic Puckrin, a crypto market analyst and founder of the Coin Bureau media outlet. “Even if the war ends now, its repercussions will likely be the story of 2026, and certainly the dominant narrative for Q2. I don’t expect to see a rate cut until late Q3 or Q4, if at all,” Puckrin told Cointelegraph. He said that he sees:  If Bitcoin closes the week above $71,000, it could signal continued upside for BTC, with resistance forming around the $74,000 level, he said. At last look, it was trading at about $71,276, according to TradingView data. Read more

Bitcoin and Ether are each less than 10% away from price levels that could signal a potential reversal in the crypto market, according to a macro analyst. Bitcoin and Ether aren’t far from levels that could signal a trend reversal this year, despite a growing consensus across the industry calling for a bear market, according to macro analyst Jordi Visser. “If we trade above $76,000 and at the same time we see Ethereum above $2,400, I believe that is the beginning of a move that will be sustainable this year because I don't think we're going to have a recession,” Visser said on the Anthony Pompliano podcast published on YouTube on Friday. A move to $76,000 would represent an increase of 6.1% from Bitcoin’s (BTC) price of $71,646 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ether’s (ETH) move to $2,400 would represent an increase of around 8%. Read more

The longer Bitcoin's price stays flat, the bigger the move up could eventually be, according to a crypto analyst. Bitcoin’s prolonged consolidation below $70,000 may be paving the way for a more significant rally, according to a crypto analyst. “The longer it lasts, the heavier the breakout will be,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in an X post on Friday. “Bitcoin remains stagnant in this area, which means that there's literally no direction,” van de Poppe said, adding that he is eyeing Bitcoin (BTC) breaking through $71,000, a level the asset hasn’t reached since March 26. Read more

Bitcoin ETFs offer more use cases for the average investor’s portfolio than a gold ETF does, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could surpass gold ETFs in total assets under management (AUM) as investor demand expands beyond the traditional “digital gold” narrative, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart. “There are just more use cases of why somebody would put a Bitcoin ETF in a portfolio,” Seyffart said on the Coin Stories podcast published to YouTube on Friday. He pointed to Bitcoin’s (BTC) role as digital gold, a store of value, a portfolio diversifier, and a form of digital capital and property, adding that the market also views Bitcoin as a “growth risk asset.” Seyffart explained that Bitcoin has “all these different ways” of being viewed, while gold only has “one of those things.” Read more

The value of the Bitcoin treasury company's holdings peaked at over $711 million in October 2025, when BTC hit an all-time high of about $126,000. Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Nakamoto (NAKA) selling its BTC at a loss could signal capitulation of more crypto treasury companies and the start of a “contagion” that could spark a wave of forced selling, according to market analyst Nic Puckrin. "Cracks are beginning to show in the digital asset treasury (DAT) market,” Puckrin said, adding that the war in the Middle East will likely place further pressure on Bitcoin’s price and treasury companies in a reinforcing cycle. He said: Nakamoto sold 284 BTC in March for $20 million, implying a price of about $70,000 per coin; the company also reduced its stake in the publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet, selling shares at a loss.  Read more

Bitcoin charts point to a possible rally to $80,000, but spot volumes need to increase in order for the rally to hold. Bitcoin (BTC) is testing the $71,500 pivot, a key level across multiple timeframes and analysts noted that price action is tilted toward a possible rally to $80,000. As traders remain split between futures-driven speculation and weak spot demand, Bitcoin has tested the $71,500 inflection point four times in the past seven days. A positive is that the price has held above the 50-period exponential moving average (EMA) on the four-hour chart, but the 50-day EMA on the daily chart continues to act as a level of resistance. Crypto trader Skew described the position as a “compression zone,” where the tightening price range and trading may lead to a strong directional move. Read more

21Shares' macro chief looks at why Bitcoin has held relatively steady since the start of Middle East hostilities, while gold has slipped below $4,500 and key support levels. The divergence between gold and Bitcoin (BTC) in 2026 can be explained by two distinct segments of buyers, according to Stephen Coltman, head of macro at crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) provider 21Shares. Gold’s rally over the last three years has been primarily fueled by central bank buying, while Bitcoin is more widely held by individuals than financial institutions, Coltman told Cointelegraph. He said: However, BTC has more utility for individuals who may use it as an alternative “lifeline” when local banking infrastructure fails during times of crisis, and accessing the traditional financial system is not possible.  Read more

The SEC's digital asset market taxonomy, which classifies most cryptocurrencies and tokens as non-securities, is a major step for US regulators. The recent guidance from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission establishing a taxonomy for digital assets put a “final nail” in the coffin of SEC policy under former Chairman Gary Gensler, according to Alex Thorn, the head of firmwide research at investment firm Galaxy. The SEC guidance, published on Tuesday, established a taxonomy for digital assets, dividing them into five categories, including digital commodities, digital collectibles like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital tools, stablecoins, and tokenized securities.  Under the old SEC policy framework, the regulations governing which cryptocurrencies met the legal criteria of “investment contracts” were legislative rules, as opposed to the new 2026 guidance that was filed as an interpretive rule, Thorn said. He explained the significance: Read m...

The disruption to the oil market and critical energy effects may have long-term economic effects that investors are not pricing in. Traders are miscalculating the severity and the duration of economic fallout from the Middle East conflict and are pricing in a “TACO” trade, which stands for “Trump always chickens out,” according to market analyst and founder of the Coin Bureau, Nic Puckrin. The term was coined by Wall Street and refers to US President Donald Trump backing down in geopolitical conflicts. However, Puckrin warned that “Trump is not in sole control of the situation,” and there are no easy or quick exits from the war. If oil continues to trade above $100 per barrel, economic growth will slow, and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation will rise by up to 1 percentage point, Puckrin said.  Read more

Banks seek to deploy capital in the most efficient way possible, but capital rules under the Basel III framework make crypto holdings costly. The Basel III rules, which govern bank capital requirements, are set to be updated in 2026, and if Bitcoin (BTC) receives a lower risk rating in the revised rules, it could potentially trigger a “huge” influx of liquidity into BTC, according to market analyst Nic Puckrin. Under the current Basel rules, BTC and similar digital assets are given a 1,250% risk weight, meaning banks must hold reserve assets at a 1:1 ratio to back any Bitcoin held on their balance sheets, Puckrin said. These restrictive capital requirements make it “almost impossible” for banks to hold BTC or offer BTC-related services, he added. He said: Read more

USDC’s market cap is approaching a record $80 billion, with one analyst linking the surge to capital flight and turmoil in Dubai’s real estate market. The market capitalization of the USDC stablecoin is approaching a record high near $80 billion as demand surges in the Middle East, with one analyst linking the spike to capital flight from the United Arab Emirates. According to data from CoinMarketCap, USDC (USDC)’s circulating supply has risen to roughly $79.2 billion, marking a new all-time high for the dollar-pegged stablecoin. The stablecoin’s market cap previously hit a high of below $79 billion in December last year. The increase comes after supply expanded by billions of dollars in recent weeks. The stablecoin’s market cap stood at just over $70 billion in early February and at $75 billion earlier this month. Read more

The crypto altcoin market is in turmoil as investor sentiment plummets and digital asset prices fail to recover from the October 2025 crash. An estimated 38% of altcoins are now hovering near all-time lows, which is worse than the post-FTX market crash, according to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost. The current market is “unfavorable” for risk-on assets, and the crypto markets are the first to absorb this risk-off posturing, he said, adding: Examples of altcoins, cryptocurrency that typically serves as an alternative to Bitcoin (BTC), include Cardano’s ADA (ADA), which is hovering at about $0.10 above its all-time low of $0.17. Polkadot (DOT) reached an all-time low of $1.13 in February, but is now up 33% from there, and Polygon (POL) is trading at about $0.02 off its all-time low of $0.08.  Read more

Gold has become "overextended" after climbing to more than $5,247 per ounce, according to Jan3 CEO and Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow. Bitcoin (BTC) is relatively undervalued compared to gold and the global money supply, which could signal a price reversal, according to Samson Mow, the CEO of Bitcoin technology company Jan3. “Bitcoin is about 24%-66% below its trend relative to gold's market cap or global money supply, while gold is overextended,” Mow said in a Saturday post on X. Gold futures for April delivery closed Friday at $5,247.90; Tokenized gold PAX Gold USD was trading at the time of writing at $5,404.14. Read more

Demand from Bitcoin accumulation addresses reached a new high, with analysts citing a futures market CME gap as a prediction point for their higher short-term price targets. Bitcoin (BTC) saw a sharp dip below $67,400 during the Monday session open, after it rallied above $70,000 over the weekend. An immediate recovery may come at the back of BTC order book data, which shows aggressive bid positioning, and onchain data pointing to a rise in long-term accumulation.  Analysts now say the move may extend toward the $80,000–$84,000 region, with order book liquidity playing a key role in the next move. Key takeaways: Read more

The ETF issuer warned that investors who pick the fund tied to the losing US presidential outcome could lose nearly all invested capital. US-based ETF issuer Roundhill Investments has filed with the US securities regulator to launch six exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to event contracts on the outcome of the 2028 US presidential election. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in an X post on Saturday that, if approved, the ETF products would be “potentially groundbreaking.” “Opens up huge door to all kinds of stuff,” Balchunas said, adding that prediction market applications are easy to sign up to, but ETFs are “just that much easier.” Read more