Bitcoin continued trading sideways this week amidst macroeconomic pressures, while the altcoin market saw modest gains. The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization slipped from a $3.74 trillion high early in the week before stabilizing around $3.7 trillion by late Friday. The crypto fear and greed index dropped 7 points from the previous week to neutral levels at 54, reflecting the lack of momentum prevailing in the market. What happened with Bitcoin this week? Bitcoin remained confined within a tight range, trading between $98,380.59 and $106,462. A few factors can be attributed to the subdued performance, preventing the flagship crypto from retesting its all-time high. The early week jitters came after the world was introduced to DeepSeek, a Chinese-built artificial intelligence model that directly competes against US-made large language models like ChatGPT and Claude. Notably, DeepSeek was created on a fraction of the budget of its competitors, yet it offers comparable performance. As the Chinese alternative rose up app store charts, it sparked fears among the US tech markets, with major companies like Nvidia experiencing a 17% drop, erasing $589 billion from its market cap. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 3.1%, and the S&P 500 fell 1.5%. This downturn in the stock market spilled over into the crypto space, contributing to Bitcoin’s constrained trading range. Traders remained cautious ahead of the FOMC meeting, wary of a potential hawkish stance from the Federal Reserve. However, bulls quickly reclaimed the key $103,000 support level after the Fed kept interest rates unchanged. Will Bitcoin go up? Currently, the report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, set for February 7, is expected to be a major deciding factor behind Bitcoin’s trajectory. Experts state that a strong labor market report would signal a resilient economy, thereby reducing the likelihood of further rate cuts, which wouldn’t bode well for BTC. On the contrary, a weaker-than-expected report could increase the chances of rate cuts, which could be the much-needed push that’s currently lacking in the market. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s fundamentals remain strong, with institutional demand on the rise and its adoption as a reserve asset already gaining traction across various jurisdictions. Several countries are actively discussing its role in their financial systems, while some US states have introduced bills that are currently under consideration. In terms of technical analysis, a bullish case was presented by well-known trader Gladiator, who flagged that BTC had formed a cup and handle pattern on the daily chart. According to the analyst, this could position Bitcoin for a breakout above key resistance levels, potentially paving the way for a retest of its all-time high. Another perspective was presented by pseudonymous commentator CHADXBT, who did not rule out the possibility of an early February shakeout. However, the analyst expects the second month of 2025 to be “bullish overall.” He added: I also don’t think the top is in for this cycle. Ignore the people that say it is! When writing, Bitcoin was breaking past $105,500 but had posted a modest 0.3% loss on the weekly timeframe. Altcoin market lacked momentum Pressured by Bitcoin’s volatility, traders steered away from the much riskier altcoin market this week, which was defined by low trading volumes. Yet the altcoin season managed to climb four points to recover above 50. On X, some pundits speculated about the onset of alt season. Analyst Ash Crypto highlighted a resemblance between the current altcoin market structure and the historical pattern observed in 2020. Ash noted that the overall crypto market cap had broken out of a descending trendline, resembling the early stages of the 2020 rally. This breakout could signal the beginning of a bullish phase for altcoins if the pattern continues to develop as expected. However, broader market conditions, heavily influenced by Bitcoin’s performance, remain a critical factor. Double-digit gains were posted by several of the top crypto projects. The best performers were: Mantra Mantra (OM), the RWA-focused layer-1 blockchain pulled the highest gains this week among the top 100 largest cryptocurrencies in the market. Source: CoinMarketCap Over the last 7 days, OM rose 47.3%, exchanging hands at $5.30 at press time while its market cap was standing at over $5.1 billion. The gains also came amid a high-volume trading environment, with OM’s daily trading volume rising from around $80 million on Jan. 24 to $523 million when writing. Most of the weekly gains came from the hype of its major partnership with DAMAC, one of the largest real estate companies in Dubai. DAMAC will reportedly tokenize $1 billion worth of its real estate holdings on the Mantra blockchain. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s recent call for the U.S. securities regulator to approve the tokenization of stocks and bonds also acted as a tailwind for OM’s recent gains. Such a move could unlock trillions of dollars in assets within the stock and bond markets, with Mantra well-positioned to benefit from the expanding tokenization trend. Jupiter Jupiter (JUP) rallied 23.1% over the past 7 days, priced at $1.05 at the time of writing. Holding the 78th position among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the altcoin’s market cap was seated at $1.77 billion, with a circulating supply of about $1.68 billion in JUP tokens. Source: CoinMarketCap Most of the gains over the week likely came as the Solana DEX aggregator announced major platform changes at its recent ‘Catstanbul 2025’ event in Turkey. During the event, Jupiter burned 3 billion JUP tokens, reducing the total supply by 30%. The project’s founder also announced that half of the platform’s fee revenue would be used to buy back JUP tokens and lock them in a long-term reserve. Bittensor Recording gains of a little over 20% over the last 7 days, Bittensor (TAO) also made it among the leading gainers of this week. The AI coin was trading at $472.04 per coin with a market cap of over $3.8 billion at the time of writing. Source: CoinMarketCap TAO rallied ahead of the mainnet launch of an overhaul of its integrated tokenomics and governance model dubbed ‘Dynamic TAO’. It replaces static control over TAO emissions, allowing emissions to adjust dynamically based on network activity and demand. A key feature of Dynamic TAO is the introduction of subnet-specific tokens, which will allow users to engage with and support individual subnets. The post Weekly crypto recap: Bitcoin trades sideways, while OM and JUP surge double digits appeared first on Invezz
