Bitcoin faced some extreme volatility yesterday amid the latest developments in South Korea, but it managed to recover its losses and is back to roughly $97,000.

The show, though, belongs to a few altcoins once again, such as TRX and BNB, both of which have soared to new all-time highs.

BTC Back to $97K

After last week’s bounce-off from $91,000, the primary cryptocurrency went on the offensive and shot above $98,000 on Friday. However, the bears came out of the woods again at that point and didn’t allow another attempt at cracking into six-digit price territory.

BTC slipped during the weekend and stood within a range between $96,000 and $97,000. Monday began with a brief surge past $98,000, which was met with tons of resistance that drove bitcoin south to under $95,000. Another volatile wave hit the market with a surge to $97,500 and a subsequent rejection to $94,500.

A similar scenario repeated yesterday amid the brief martial law in South Korea, and BTC dumped to $93,500 this time, with warnings about an even more severe correction.

However, the cryptocurrency headed in the opposite direction and now sits close to $97,000 after recovering over three grand since yesterday’s low.

Its market cap has reclaimed the $1.9 trillion line, but its dominance over the alts has dumped again to 51.3% on CG.

TRX, BNB at New Peaks

As reported earlier, TRX emerged as today’s top performer as it skyrocketed by almost triple digits at one point and shot above $0.4 to mark a fresh all-time high. Binance Coin is another larger-cap asset that charted a new peak of almost $800.

Other notable gainers from the larger-cap alts include AVAX, TON, DOT, BCH, ETC, and FIL. Ethereum has gained more than 3% and sits above $3,700.

The total crypto market cap has added another $60 billion since yesterday and sits at a peak of its own at over $3.730 trillion on CG.

“One of the biggest misconceptions in Bitcoin is that HODLers never sell,” said on-chain analyst James Check on X on Dec. 3. However, they do sell, and they’re currently keeping prices from moving higher, he added.

Bitcoin has been range bound, oscillating around $95,0000 since Nov. 20, two weeks ago. It has failed to register a new all-time high but remains in price discovery as long-term holders are “pumping the sell-side brakes,” said Check.

Pumping The Bitcoin Brakes

Right now, markets are approximately six times off the FTX cycle low, “and the market has hit resistance, chopped around, and corrected from similar levels in both of the prior cycles,” he added in a newsletter on Dec. 2. However, it has still powered onward to massively higher highs.

The analyst compared the market to a car, with demand being the accelerator and sell-side pressure being the brakes. The demand is “pedal to the metal,” with Michael Saylor and the spot Bitcoin ETFs hammering the buy-side, he said before adding:

“If the Long-Term Holders are pumping the sell-side brakes at an equal magnitude, the car isn’t going anywhere.”

One of the biggest misconceptions in #Bitcoin is that HODLers and OGs never sell.

They absolutely do, so I wanted to break down not only when, but at what profit levels they cash in.

My latest analysis is out for @_checkonchain subscribers (post in tweet below). pic.twitter.com/4jZlOl5oSI

— _Checkmate ⚡☢️️ (@_Checkmatey_) December 3, 2024

Following a parabolic monthly candle of $26,000 in November to the psychological $100,000 barrier, a period of consolidation where the asset can build market structure is a healthy phase.

On-chain analysis platform Glassnode concurred, reporting that daily realized profits to exchanges have cooled off significantly, representing a 42% drop from the peak in mid-November.

“This sharp decline signals reduced profit-taking activity, suggesting the market has entered a consolidation phase.”

After hitting an all-time high at $99.4K, #Bitcoin has fluctuated between $92K and $98K this past week.

Daily realized profits to exchanges have cooled off significantly, now at $277M/day. This represents a 42% drop from the peak of $481M/day on Nov 16.

This sharp decline… pic.twitter.com/atXIrKJjHA

— glassnode (@glassnode) December 3, 2024

Bitcoin dipped to $93,700 on Dec. 3 as political tensions in South Korea escalated but regained $96,000 during the Wednesday morning Asian trading session, keeping it within its sideways channel.

Analyst ‘Rekt Capital’ reported that BTC continues to retest the series of lower highs as support, adding that as long as this continues, the asset should be able to reclaim the ~$96,400 support area, which was touched a couple of hours ago.

#BTC

Bitcoin continues to retest the series of Lower Highs as support

Producing longer and longer downside wicks

Grabbing liquidity at lower and lower prices without losing the trendline

As long as this continues, BTC should be able to reclaim the ~$96400 support$BTC… https://t.co/AB1izNbYO7 pic.twitter.com/g9gzNXRwN5

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) December 4, 2024

Elsewhere on Crypto Markets

Total capitalization is at an all-time high of $3.67 trillion, and altcoins are driving it there at the moment.

Today’s big movers are Binance Coin (BNB), which gained 15% to hit an all-time high of $771, and Tron (TRX), which surged a whopping 68% to an all-time high of $0.43 during early trading on Dec. 4.

TL:DR;

• Several altcoins have popped up in the past few weeks to register massive double- and even triple-digit gains at some point.
• Will PEPE be the next in line? Some whale activity suggests so.

Alts’ Rally

The current crypto environment screams altseason. It all started after Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the US presidential elections when DOGE, alongside BTC, skyrocketed to new multi-year peaks, perhaps due to the asset’s affiliation with Elon Musk.

Since then, bitcoin has stalled and is in consolidation mode, while DOGE has calmed. However, numerous other altcoins have started to pop up frequently. XRP was at the forefront of these rallies, surging by more than 420% within a month, charting a 7-year high, and becoming the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

The past 24 hours have seen the rise of two other bright stars – Tron and Binance Coin. Both have blasted through their previous ATHs, especially the former. TRX shot up by more than 70% and jumped above $0.43 to mark a fresh peak.

Other noteworthy contenders include XLM, HBAR, DOT, and AVAX. Now, the community has started to speculate on which altcoin will be next.

Is PEPE Next?

The third-largest meme coin also soared in value after Trump’s win and marked a new all-time high on November 14 at $0.00002457 (CoinGecko data). This came after numerous listings on large exchanges and a growing hype within the community.

Similar to DOGE, though, it retraced in the following weeks and now sits below $0.000021 – or 15% away from its peak from last month. It has remained somewhat on the sidelines, with the focus going on many of the aforementioned assets.

However, it seems certain large investors, known as whales, are turning their attention back to it, which could suggest a further rally. Data from Lookonchain shows that a single whale had accumulated and withdrawn nearly $7 million worth of PEPE in the past 20 days. Such large purchases and withdrawals often precede price increases due to the declining available supply and immediate sell pressure.

Whales continue to accumulate $PEPE!

A whale has withdrawn 337.09B $PEPE($6.92M) from #Binance in the past 20 days.https://t.co/65vbIQd2dd pic.twitter.com/79NauAQt8V

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 4, 2024