Crypto is moving through the week without major drama but with enough spikes and flushes to remind traders that leverage never sleeps. The whole market is sitting at around $4.52 trillion in capitalization, Bitcoin is at $121,800, Ethereum is around $4,336 and both of them have been stuck in short ranges after yesterday’s wide swings.
The driver that still carries weight is the spot ETF flow, because every day money is coming in, and Wednesday was no different: Bitcoin funds gained $440.7 million, Ethereum added another $69 million, and that keeps pushing a bid underneath the market even while short-term traders keep getting “rekt.”
On the macro side, nothing new appeared that could scare investors. The shutdown in the United States is still there, but traders learned to treat it as a plus rather than minus because less news means fewer surprises, and the Fed minutes showed once again they are ready to keep lowering rates.
The only unusual thing on the horizon is Friday’s Nobel Peace Prize announcement, which may not look like a direct market event, but at a time when any geopolitical headline can influence oil, energy or currencies, traders should keep an eye on it just in case.
Bitcoin price stuck at $121,800 after failed all-time high breakout
Bitcoin is trading at $121,841 after a failed attempt to hold higher levels yesterday. The numbers from derivatives add more detail: in the past 24 hours, Bitcoin had $64.8 million worth of long positions liquidated and $64.5 million in shorts, almost equal, which shows how balanced the battle has been.
But if you zoom in to the last 12 hours across the whole market the picture changes, bulls took most of the pain, with $301.9 million in long liquidations against $55.4 million in shorts, which basically tells the story of yesterday’s dump.
For today, the key point is still $121,100, if that level cracks the chart opens a slide to $119,800, while on the upside, only a break through $122,800 would clear the way back to $124,500.
Figure of the day: Ripple CEO calls $1 trillion stablecoin era
Ripple’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse was the headline speaker at Pantera Capital’s Blockchain Summit 2025 in New York, where he said straight out that “this represents the future re-wiring of the financial system.”
The timing of his words fits with the report from Standard Chartered that predicted as much as $1 trillion could move out of banks into emerging markets and flow into dollar-backed stablecoins in the next three years. Ripple’s RLUSD token is being built exactly for that flow, so his remark was not a random soundbite but a signal of where the company wants to stand.
Chart of the day: Shiba Inu (SHIB) faces key 2025 floor test
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is now at $0.00001199 and holding only a thin line above support. The token failed multiple times near $0.0000123 and is now right at the level that U.Today highlighted earlier as critical; if $0.0000120 does not hold, the next zones are $0.0000115 and $0.0000105, which would erase all of 2024’s gains and effectively mark the token’s bottom for 2025.
Technical signals give no comfort. The price was rejected from the 100 EMA and 200 EMA, and the RSI is parked around 45, which is not low enough to give oversold relief, and volume shows selling is still dominant while bullish participation keeps shrinking.
On the liquidation side, the token saw $11.3 million in long positions wiped against $4.7 million in shorts on the last day, which means that, once again, speculators trying to catch a bounce are paying the bill.
Unless buyers show up, the market will likely treat SHIB as a coin that already played its hype cycle.
Evening outlook
- Bitcoin (BTC): Holding $121,100-$121,200 is the key point. If broken, the next stop is 119,800. Resistance is at $122,800-$123,800. Total liquidations in the past day: about $129 million.
- Ethereum (ETH): Trading at $4,336 after a 3% drop. Watch $3,180 as the next strong support, resistance at $3,320-$3,400. ETF inflows yesterday were $69 million, long liquidations $122 million.
- XRP: Price at $2.80, but risk extends to $2.64, which is the 200-day moving average. Longs worth $11.8 million liquidated yesterday.
- Solana (SOL): Quoting $221.7, still above the $220 handle. Support at $218, resistance around $225. Long liquidations about $17.2 million.
- Shiba Inu (SHIB): The pivot remains at $0.0000120, with downside to $0.0000115 and 0.0000105. Longs liquidated $11.3 million in the past day.
- Macro: Friday’s Nobel Peace Prize announcement stands out as a headline risk event that markets will follow for potential knock-on effects.