Bitcoin (BTC) is once again knocking on the door of its all-time high (ATH), trading around $109,500 early Wednesday, a mere 2% shy of its $111,800 peak set nearly three weeks ago.

Yet beneath the surface of this upward momentum lies a market defined by compressed volatility, long-term holder profit-taking, and a growing divergence between futures and on-chain sentiment.

Long-Term Holders Cash In, But Supply Stays Sticky

Glassnode’s latest Week On-Chain report outlines how BTC recovered from a local low of $100,400, where demand re-emerged after a brief but sharp 9% drawdown.

According to the analytics platform, this dip rattled investor confidence, with the Fear and Greed Index momentarily entering “Fear” territory. However, the lack of mass panic selling, with only $200 million in on-chain losses realized, showed that capitulation was limited to the newest and most speculative market entrants.

Despite the resilience, Glassnode warned of increased profit-taking activity among long-term holders (LTHs). The cohort locked in a peak of $930 million per day in realized profits, a level historically associated with overheated markets.

Interestingly, this cycle seems to be defying tradition: despite the profit-taking, the proportion of Bitcoin wealth held by LTHs has increased. The report attributed this “unique market dynamic” to intense “maturation and accumulation pressures” overwhelming selling.

A key driver appears to be the spot Bitcoin ETFs and institutional participation, effectively locking up supply in long-term custody and making LTH wealth “significantly stickier.”

Indeed, on Monday alone, six out of eleven U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $386.2 million in inflows. These signals are also mirrored by recent data from CryptoQuant, which confirmed that U.S. buyers are reasserting dominance, with the Coinbase Premium index hitting a three-month high and the 90-day Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) flipping green for the first time in four months.

Critical Levels for the Path Ahead

Looking at the markets, at the time of this writing, BTC had posted an almost negligible uptick of 0.1% in the last 24 hours. Over the past seven days, the gains stand at 3.8%, with the asset up 5.3% for the month. Meanwhile, daily trading volume sits at $34 billion, with a circulating supply nearing 19.9 million BTC.

With Bitcoin perched just below its ATH, the Glassnode report made clear the following technical and on-chain levels:

• Downside Support: The $97,600 short-term holders (STH) cost basis is the critical floor. Holding above it will maintain a bullish structure. However, a break below risks shifting sentiment. Furthermore, strong support lies around the 111 DMA ($92,900) and 200 DMA ($95,400).
• Upside Resistance: Breaking the ATH at $111,814 is the first hurdle. Beyond that, the next major on-chain resistance zone sits at $115,400. Additionally, sparse on-chain volume above current prices suggests a potential “air gap” exists, and if demand is strong enough, a swift move higher could occur once the ATH is surpassed.

However, volatility remains a wildcard, with Glassnode warning of a dense cluster of coins acquired near the current price that could potentially amplify reactions to moves, even as options markets remain oddly subdued. At-the-money implied volatility (ATM IV) has yet to reflect these brewing tensions, potentially signaling underpriced risk.

The blockchain solutions provider Ripple Labs, which oversees the development of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), is set to launch an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible sidechain before the end of this quarter.

The firm made the announcement at the ongoing XRPL Apex event in Singapore. Ripple’s Apex 2025 is a three-day summit (June 10-12) that unites developers, researchers, innovators, businesses, and the broader crypto community to celebrate blockchain technology and the XRPL ecosystem.

XRPL EVM Sidechain to Go Live in Q2

Ripple’s Director of Product Management, Jaazi Cooper, and Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, announced the upcoming EVM-compatible sidechain launch during the first day of the event.

According to Peersyst Technology, a validator and contributor to the XRPL, the EVM sidechain features 87 entities, including decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, oracles, and indexers. The chain is also seeing contributions from decentralized applications (dApps), auditors, bridges, wallets, and explorers, as seen on the ecosystem map. Most of these entities had no prior involvement with XRPL or XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the XRPL.

The sidechain has experienced remarkable growth within two months of operating on the testnet. Developers launched the XRPL EVM sidechain testnet on March 31, calling on developers to follow suit by migrating their projects from the devnet.

Expanding the XRPL Ecosystem

When the chain goes live in the coming weeks, all new entities, applications, and partners will become part of the XRP ecosystem. Peersyst stated that the XRPL EVM will be the most effective tool for facilitating the largest onboarding of users and projects in the XRP ecosystem.

The launch of the chain will enable developers and network participants to run Ethereum-based decentralized applications and smart contracts on the XRPL, generating more demand for the network and its assets.

“Exciting times ahead for XRPL EVM – and this is just the beginning,” said Unity Nodes, a contributor to the EVM sidechain.

The latest developments come as a date crucial to the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) draws nearer. The SEC must report the $50 million settlement agreement with Ripple to the Appeal Court by June 16; otherwise, the case will be delayed for another two months.

Meanwhile, XRP has recovered significantly from the toll the lawsuit took on its price performance. The asset is up more than 370% in a year, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin’s price attempted to take down the $110,000 level and perhaps head to a new all-time high once again hours ago, but it didn’t see much success.

Many altcoins have posted mindblowing gains over the past 24-48 hours, led by Uniswap’s notable 16% surge and SPX’s 15% pump.

BTC Flirts With New ATH

The primary cryptocurrency experienced a substantial correction at the end of the past business week amid the public spat between US President Donald Trump and former ally Elon Musk. At the time, BTC plummeted to a multi-week low of under $100,500.

Although some expected a breakdown to a five-digit price territory, the bulls stepped up and didn’t allow another decline. Just the opposite, bitcoin started to recover some ground and went back to $104,000-$106,000 during the weekend.

The market started to pick up once the new business week began, and BTC shot above $110,500 on Tuesday for the first time in about 14 days. It was stopped there at first, but the bulls tried once again in the past 6 hours. However, to no avail so far, and BTC is back to just under $110,000. Here are the most vital support and resistance lines on the way to a fresh peak.

For now, its market cap has remained sluggish at $2.180 trillion, while its dominance over the alts has been reduced to under 61%.

HYPE’s New ATH

HYPE continues to be the rockstar of the altcoin space, registering frequent all-time highs. The latest came earlier today when the asset jumped to almost $43 after a double-digit surge.

However, there are even bigger gainers over the past 24 hours, as UNI has soared by 16%, followed by SPX (15%), XDC (13%), OP (12%), A (12%), and ARB (11%).

The top performers from the larger-cap altcoins include AAVE, BCH, LINK, SOL, and DOGE, with price increases of up to 7%.

Ethereum soared to $2,800 earlier today but was stopped, while XRP continues to fight with the $2.3 resistance.

The crypto market cap is up by almost $50 billion and now sits at $3.580 trillion.