Crypto heavyweights pull back as Altcoins rotate

Market overview

The crypto market's capitalisation has remained stable at around $2.86T for the third day in a row. The market continues to ignore the strengthening of the dollar and the rise in global government bond yields. It appears that current levels are not yet attractive to cryptocurrency investors, who are waiting for a better offer or at least signs that traditional markets are bottoming out. Still, it cannot be said that all cryptocurrencies have come to a standstill while waiting. 

Over the past 24 hours, among the most liquid coins, there has been a slight trend towards profit-taking, with the sharpest declines seen in Hedera (−12.1%), Algorand (−7%) and IOTA (−6.5%), with the top performers being Sushiswap (+5.1%), NEAR Protocol (+5%) and Aave (+3.8%). Meanwhile, Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP and Solana are recording declines of around 1%. It appears the market is rotating between altcoins. Still, major cryptocurrencies are under pressure due to their close ties to traditional markets, where sentiment is more wait-and-see and cautious. 

Bitcoin has been trading predominantly between $83K and $84K over the past 24 hours up to Wednesday morning, with intraday volatility narrowing. The leading cryptocurrency is finding support at a former strong resistance level, which halted its rise in May and earlier in September. This area also acted as support at the end of last year and from February to April 2025. We should be prepared for a prolonged tug-of-war, but we remain optimistic, anticipating an upward breakout from this consolidation in the coming weeks. 

News background

An inflow of new capital into ETFs supported Bitcoin's rise last week; however, profit-taking and selling pressure in the derivatives market intensified, according to Glassnode. The proportion of 'hot money' reached 18.8%, while the share of BTC supply in profit rose from 69.3% to 74%.

Large Bitcoin holders have accumulated $14.09 billion in unrealised gains, as trading volumes have dropped sharply. CryptoQuant considers this combination to be a 'straight path to a correction'. 

Large BTC transfers to exchanges rose significantly in September. Whale activity intensified as the price rose above $87.3K. The $84K–$87K range could become an area of increased supply, notes analyst PelinayPA. 

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has tightened its oversight of crypto ETFs, eliminating schemes that allowed investors to hide profits from tax. Spot Bitcoin ETFs, such as BlackRock's fund, were not affected. 

Users withdrew $463 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Bitget exchange over the past 24 hours. The outflow began after the crypto exchange resumed withdrawals, which had been suspended following a $387 million hack of its hot wallets. The theft of cryptocurrencies from Bitget was the largest this year.