Bitcoin rallied to an intraday high of $68,225 on Friday before late Asian-hour selling erased nearly half of those gains, as profit-taking intensified near the psychological resistance of $68,500.

The early move pushed total crypto market capitalisation back above the $2.4 trillion mark for the first time this week, extending a broader surge of more than 2% across digital assets.

Much of the advance was driven by buy-the-dip flows, with institutional whales absorbing supply after “capitulation” searches peaked earlier in the week.

Momentum strengthened during US hours after the Supreme Court of the United States blocked the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, easing concerns over fresh inflationary pressure and briefly restoring risk appetite across global markets.

The ruling, which struck down the use of emergency powers to impose sweeping import duties, was interpreted as a supportive macro development for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index edged closer to extreme fear territory at 12, up one point from the previous session.

While that shift does not confirm a trend reversal, incremental improvements in sentiment during prolonged consolidation phases can help reinforce near-term support.

Bitcoin price rallied to an intraday high of $68,225, supported by a major technical catalyst that came from the network layer. 

Bitcoin recorded its largest absolute difficulty adjustment on record, jumping roughly 15% as hashrate rebounded sharply from recent weather-related disruptions in the United States. 

Rather than viewing thinner miner margins as a risk, traders framed the adjustment as confirmation that network security and competition had fully recovered. 

That shift in narrative added fuel to early momentum and triggered a short squeeze above $66,000 as bearish positions were forced to cover.

Macro positioning added another layer. Markets were leaning into the December PCE print, expected at +0.3% month over month, with participants front-running the possibility of softer inflation. 

Risk appetite briefly improved, allowing Bitcoin to decouple from a strengthening US Dollar and extend toward the $68,000 area.

However, momentum began to fade as the price approached $68,500.

The late-day release of the PCE data proved to be a bad for crypto as the Core PCE rose 0.4% month-over-month, surpassing the expected 0.3% and marking the fastest pace of inflation in nearly a year. 

On an annual basis, core prices jumped 3.0%, up from 2.8% in November. 

This hotter than expected data immediately signaled to the market that the Fed’s fight against inflation is far from over, dampening hopes for imminent rate cuts and sending the US Dollar Index to new daily highs.

Over the past 4 hours, roughly $42.42M in positions were wiped out, with $36.60M coming from longs. 

In the last hour alone, $24.58M was liquidated, and $22.60M of that was long exposure.

Once upside stalled near resistance, late buyers who had chased the breakout were quickly forced out.

Across the full 24 hour window, total liquidations reached $170.49M, almost evenly split between $85.48M in long positions and $85.01M in shorts, indicating two sided volatility rather than a clean directional move. 

BTC accounted for about $10.08M in liquidations, while ETH saw $4.79M, with the single largest order being a $2.91M ETHUSDT wipeout on Binance.

Geopolitical headlines compounded the reversal. Rising US-Iran tensions and a climb in oil prices strengthened the U.S. Dollar Index, pressuring risk assets during late Asian and early European trade. 

With no decisive break above $68,500, short-term traders opted to lock in profits ahead of the weekend rather than risk a pullback inside a still fragile macro backdrop.

As a result, what began as a confident recovery turned into a reminder that Bitcoin remains trapped in a high volatility consolidation band between $65,000 and $71,000. 

While buyers continue to defend the $65,000 floor, the combination of persistent inflation and mounting macro headwinds suggests that the path upward remains blocked.

The immediate focus now returns to $68,500, which capped today’s advance and has repeatedly acted as a supply wall throughout the current consolidation phase. 

A daily close above $68,500 would mark the first meaningful reclaim of short-term resistance and could open the door toward the $70,000 to $71,600 corridor.

A decisive push through $71,600, backed by strong spot volume rather than thin derivatives-driven momentum, would likely expose $73,300 as the next structural checkpoint.

One major catalyst that could support this scenario is the US Supreme Court blocking President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" global tariffs.

In a landmark 6-3 ruling handed down today, the Court struck down the administration's use of emergency powers to impose broad import duties, citing a violation of the major questions doctrine.

The decision has provided an immediate, if cautious, boost to risk appetite across global markets.

By removing the threat of hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes and the resulting inflationary pressure, the ruling significantly eases the macro headwinds for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin price immediately reacted with a roughly 2% rally as bulls attempted a breakout above $67,500.

For the Federal Reserve, this ruling significantly lowers the expected inflation floor by removing a major source of upward price pressure on core goods.

Consequently, market expectations have shifted from a higher-for-longer stance to a potential July rate cut, as the Fed now has more room to pivot toward supporting growth without the looming threat of tariff-driven inflation.

Such a scenario could help sustain gains over the upcoming trading sessions.

On the downside, the $65,000 to $66,100 band remains the primary defensive line. Whale accumulation has concentrated in this region, reinforcing it as a liquidity cushion. 

Repeated bounces from this zone show there is still bid support, but each retest weakens a floor if follow-through buying fails to expand.

A sustained move below $65,000 would bring $62,800 into focus, a key Fibonacci retracement level within the broader post halving structure.

A daily close beneath $62,800 would significantly damage bullish positioning and could trigger another round of forced liquidations, particularly if open interest remains elevated.

Under that scenario, $60,000 becomes the next psychological anchor. Losing that level would expose a deeper support cluster between $55,700 and $58,200, an area aligned with the network’s average realised price. 

Historically, reactions around realised price levels have shaped major inflexion points in prior cycles.

On X, veteran trader and Bitcoin sceptic Peter Schiff issued a warning that the flagship crypto could be gearing for a steep correction to $20,000 if the $50,000 support is breached.

“I know Bitcoin has done that before, but never with so much hype, leverage, institutional ownership, and market cap at stake. Sell Bitcoin now!,” Schiff wrote.

Meanwhile, some market watchers were calling a market bottom. 

For instance, crypto analyst Teo Mercer, who was tracking Bitcoin’s realized loss momentum, said the metric was nearing levels that have historically marked local bottoms in previous cycles.

“When realized losses spike to extremes, it usually means one thing: capitulation. And capitulation is often where sellers run out of ammo,” Mercer wrote.

However, the analyst noted that such signals do not guarantee an immediate reversal, cautioning that while capitulation often forms the foundation for a bottom, price action can remain volatile before a sustained recovery takes hold.

The total market capitalisation of all altcoins combined initially rose 5% to $1.05 trillion before stabilising at $1.03 trillion at press time.

Ethereum (ETH) bulls tried to push its price to reclaim the $2,000 threshold but failed short as it dipped back and settled at $1,930, up by a meagre margin in the daily session.

Other large-cap altcoins such as BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), Tron (TRX), and Cardano (ADA) also posted slight gains ranging between 1-3%. 

Kite (KITE) emerged as a top gainer, rallying 18% after being announced as an official sponsor of ETHDenver this year.

There’s also hype around the project’s appearance at the World Liberty Forum at Mar-a-Lago, hosted by World Liberty Financial, where the team joined influential industry leaders like Eric Trump. 

Morpho (MORPHO) climbed 8% today following the official launch of Coinbase's on-chain DeFi lending, which integrates directly with the Morpho protocol on the Base network.

As for LayerZero (ZRO), which held gains of nearly 7%, the token’s rally followed confirmation from the LayerZero CEO that ZRO will be the sole token powering its new Layer-1 network, Zero.

This announcement effectively ended speculation regarding the potential launch of a separate, additional asset for the new chain.

According to the team, ZRO will be the network's central utility asset, serving as the staking token, the native gas token, and the primary recipient of all major fee flows generated across Zero and its connected protocols.

Source: CoinMarketCap

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