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Bitcoin showed increased volatility today, reacting to the aftermath of the Bybit hack and a huge sell-off led by Ethereum holders.
Investors remained in risk-off mode as the overall crypto market capitalisation fell over 3% to a low of $3.1 trillion.
The crypto fear and greed index dropped one point to 49 at neutral levels.
For the altcoin market, the day was marked with losses, with only a few top tokens managing to remain in the green by late Asian trading hours.
Why is Bitcoin down today?
Bitcoin remained stuck in a narrow range of $95,113.37 – $96,480.93 as traders stayed cautious, hesitant to inject liquidity amid broader market uncertainty.
The hesitation stems from the fallout of the Bybit hack, which saw over $1.4 billion in ETH and ETH-related tokens stolen—marking the largest-ever crypto heist.
The incident triggered a massive sell-off, with Ethereum leading the downturn.
ETH dropped 5% in the past 24 hours, slipping below $2,700.
The panic quickly spread across the market, dragging Bitcoin and other major tokens down with it.
To make matters worse, the sell-off led to significant liquidations in the derivatives market.
Over $268 million in leveraged positions were wiped out, including $40.13 million from long ETH positions—almost double the $21.4 million liquidated in Bitcoin longs.
On top of this, markets were already reeling from growing concerns around inflation and trade tariffs.
The upcoming release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index on February 28 is keeping traders on edge.
The markets are also jittery about a tighter monetary policy in 2025.
According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, there’s a 97.5% chance the Fed will keep rates steady in March and a 73% likelihood of no change in May.
For crypto investors, this means the pressure from higher interest rates and tightening monetary policy will likely persist, limiting market liquidity and risk appetite in the near term.
What’s next for Bitcoin?
Some market analysts have turned bearish over Bitcoin’s price action over the next few days and expect a pullback to $90k.
In a February 24 X post, analyst Roman noted that Bitcoin has repeatedly failed to break higher despite multiple attempts.
He pointed out that the lack of momentum suggests the market is losing steam and could be gearing up for a drop.
“Just seems like a 90k support touch is coming. This invalidates if we break 98.4 with a close above,” he added.
Similarly, fellow trader Posty believes a correction to $92k is likely considering the “panic, depression, and bear posting” currently prevailing across the market.
$BTC Just another rejection from the mid-range as we find ourselves back at short term support. The test of patience continues. Imagine the smell if we see something like this… The panic, depression and bear posting at $92k would be wild.
Rekt Capital, another well-known analyst, added to the cautious outlook.
According to the analyst, Bitcoin is in the middle of a volatile retest of a bull flag pattern on the monthly chart.
To confirm this bullish trend, Bitcoin must pull off a monthly close above the bull flag’s top at $96,700.
When writing, Bitcoin was hovering a little over $94,500, down 1.2% over the past day.
Altcoin’s market down
Over the last 24 hours, the altcoin market tanked 5.2%, falling from $1.33 trillion to $1.26 trillion in the period.
The altcoin season index dipped to a 3-month low of 26 over the past day, a sign that traders have steered away from altcoin investments due to the broader uncertainty that’s currently prevailing across markets.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, only a few managed to stay in the green.
Bittensor (TAO) and Hedera (HBAR) both recorded modest gains of nearly 3%, while Tron (TRX) managed to hold onto 1.3% of profits.
Source: CoinMarketCap
For HBAR, gains were triggered after Canary Capital filed for an HBAR ETF, while the other tokens had no apparent reason behind today’s performance.
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