Bitcoin’s gradual ascent after its Friday plunge to a two-week low continues as the asset has risen to just over $118,000 over the past 12 hours or so.

Although most altcoins are somewhat sluggish on a slow Sunday, a few have tapped multi-month peaks, such as Cronos (CRO).

BTC Taps $118K

Bitcoin’s latest all-time high, which took place on July 14, was followed by an expected correction and consolidation period. Within days, the asset slumped to under $120,000 and spent most of the next week trading sideways between that upper boundary and $117,000.

After a few rejections at $120,000, the bears took control and initiated a considerable leg down that pushed the cryptocurrency to a low of $114,500. This came as Galaxy Digital offloaded 80,000 BTC (valued at over $9 billion) for a third party.

Once the sell-off was completed, bitcoin’s price started to recover and jumped past $117,000 yesterday and up to $118,400 today. This meant that the asset has recovered four grand since the Friday low.

Its market capitalization has climbed to $2.350 trillion, while its dominance over the altcoins has stalled at 59.2%.

These Alts Are Pumping

Most altcoins are with minor gains today as well. Ethereum jumped to $3,800 earlier today after a 1-2% increase. Ripple’s native token is at $3.2 after a similar daily jump. BNB, SOL, DOGE, TRX, and ADA have charted similar gains as well.

SUI continues with its impressive run, having surged by another 6% and is well above $4.2. BCH and CRO have added over 5-6% in a day, which has helped the latter surge to a new six-month high of over $0.14.

The top performer among the largest 100 altcoins is HBAR. It has risen by more than 10% and now trades over $0.29.

The total crypto market cap has recovered another $30 billion and is up to $3.970 trillion on CG. The metric reached a multi-week low on Friday at under $3.870 trillion.

TL;DR

• ChatGPT outlined five altcoins that could become the top performers by the end of the year, but omitted Ripple’s XRP.
• In a follow-up post, the popular AI outlined its reasons for doing so.

Why Not XRP, ChatGPT?

Before we head into the AI’s answer, here’s the context. Yesterday, we published an article asking the top 4 AI chatbots (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Perplexity), which are their five altcoin contenders to outperform by the end of the year. While there were some speculative and surprising names, the last three AIs all included ETH and XRP – the two largest altcoins by market – in some form.

ChatGPT, however, left out Ripple’s native token, which is somewhat surprising given its performance since the US elections. Back then, it was in a multi-month consolidation phase with an upper boundary of $0.6. By January, it had skyrocketed to its 2018 ATH of $3.4. Then, it retraced in late Q1 and early Q2 before it exploded once again in July to a new record of $3.65.

It also has a considerable following, known as the XRP Army, which made ChatGPT’s answer even more surprising. Consequently, we doubled down on why it excluded Ripple’s coin. It stated that it based its answer on “performance outlook,” rather than on current market capitalization or historical performance.

It cited the lack of DeFi developments on Ripple’s XRP Ledger as one of the reasons why the token wasn’t included, which is a stark contrast to the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems (both of which made the list).

It also noted that the legal overhang of the case against the SEC still exists, even though both parties have mutually agreed that the lawsuit should be concluded. Judge Torres, though, continues to deny their joint petitions.

Lastly, OpenAI’s chatbot brought up previous market cycles, in which XRP lagged behind other altcoins:

XRP Tends to Lag Early in Bull Markets:

• Historically, XRP pumps later than most other major altcoins.

• In both 2017 and 2021 cycles, XRP’s explosive moves came toward the end, not the beginning.

• So while it may perform well, it’s typically not a first mover.

It Could Still Pump

Although XRP wasn’t on ChatGPT’s top 5 list, unlike SOL, ETH, TON, SUI, and APT, the AI solution still acknowledged that Ripple’s asset could continue to rocket this year under more favorable conditions.

If the aforementioned lawsuit against the US securities watchdog officially ends with a positive outcome for Ripple, its native token is poised to benefit, said ChatGPT. Additionally, it expects the potential approval of a spot XRP ETF to give the underlying asset another price boost.

Experts and betting platforms like Polymarket put the odds for such products to see the light of day by the end of the year at up to 90%.

“XRP is not excluded because it’s weak — it’s excluded from the top 5 performance picks because other coins currently have stronger short-term narratives, faster capital rotation, or better retail excitement.

But rest assured: XRP is still a high-potential asset, and it may surprise everyone later in the cycle, especially if legal clarity and real utility ramp up,” concluded ChatGPT.

At the time of this writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading just over $118,000, after recovering from a dip that took it to a two-week low at $114,500 on July 24.

But behind the relatively calm price action, a potentially explosive narrative is gathering steam. Proponents say we’re witnessing the most calculated supply shock in crypto history, and when the dust clears, the price of BTC could be headed for the $1 million mark.

The Million-Dollar Dream

As noted in a July 25 X post by Swan, a Bitcoin-only financial services provider, the current rally, which saw BTC hit a new all-time high recently, is different. It is deliberate, calculated, and rather underhyped.

“This is the least euphoric bull market we’ve ever seen,” Swan posted. “And that’s bullish.”

Their premise? Corporate treasuries and spot-exchange traded funds are quietly soaking up BTC through algorithmic “drip buys.” These aren’t degens gambling on meme coins but CFOs and CIOs diversifying balance sheets while retail sleeps.

“Each breakout removes coins from weak hands, then resets.”

Swan calls it “deliberate absorption,” and it’s keeping price action deceptively stable, at least for now. However, crypto influencer American HODL thinks the dam is about to burst. He believes that once enough corporate balance sheets start showing BTC as a strategic reserve asset, boardrooms around the world will scramble to keep up, just like they did during the internet boom in 1999.

“I think the treasury company bubble can get dot-com level large,” he said in a recent podcast. “We could see a 3–4 year run that takes Bitcoin well beyond a million dollars.”

Roadmap to $1 Million

To support their view, Swan researchers laid out a four-phase blueprint they believe is already in motion:

• Quiet corporate absorption via algorithmic buys
• Sovereigns stacking Bitcoin under the radar
• Major treasury firms finalizing structures for maximum bidding
• Narrative contagion that ignites a multi-year melt-up

“That’s the setup for a mania-fueled blow-off top pushing toward $1M Bitcoin,” the firm stated.

The flagship cryptocurrency rallied from $42,000 to $123,000 during a historic tightening cycle, and Swan is asking, what happens when cheap money actually returns? This is especially key, with potential mega-buyers like Nakamoto, Twenty One Capital, and Strive Asset Management, reportedly waiting in the wings, structuring SPVs and M&A deals before unleashing massive BTC bids.