Bitcoin hovered around $92,000 on Friday after another failed attempt to break above $93,000 overnight, extending the choppy, directionless structure that has defined the past several sessions.
The move reinforces the same pattern that has persisted since late November, with sellers defending the mid-$93,000s, buyers stepping in near $91,000, and neither side gaining enough momentum to establish a clear trend.
The one-month chart shows that BTC is still locked in a bearish structure from early November highs, with the latest rebound producing another lower high. The price peaked near $93,500 before toppling over, keeping the broader corrective pattern intact.
Momentum remains soft and intraday recovery attempts are quickly faltering – a sign that liquidity is still thin above current levels. A clean break below $91,000 would reveal the next pocket of support at $90,000-$90,500, while bulls need to reclaim $93,200 to invalidate the short-term downtrend.
Big caps were mixed up heading into the weekend. Ether traded around $3,150 after modest losses overnight, while solana fell 4% and XRP fell nearly 5%. Cardano fell about 2%. Market-wide capitalization added about 1% in the past 24 hours to near $3.2 trillion, continuing a slow recovery that began nearly two weeks ago after a seven-week slump.
ETH led major assets over the past week with gains of more than 5%. Zcash also outperformed with a strong move earlier in the session.
ETF flows showed clear divergences. Spot bitcoin products saw a net outflow of $14.9 million, while ether funds recorded an inflow of $140.2 million, suggesting that fresh capital rotated from BTC to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Liquidation data over the past 24 hours shows BTC with nearly $45 million in long liquidations and $50.7 million in shorts. ETH, meanwhile, saw over $103 million in short-side liquidations — a sign that traders betting against ether were caught leaning the wrong way as volatility picked up.
Macro data added a layer of uncertainty. US ADP payrolls fell by 32,000 in November, well below expectations, signaling a faster cooling in the labor market. Wage growth slowed and futures markets are now assigning close to a 90% probability of a rate cut in December.
The dollar index swung sharply as traders adjusted their interest rate expectations, while risk markets largely saw volatility grow.
FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said bitcoin’s brief test of $94,000 earlier in the session met “yet not too aggressive” resistance from sellers, adding that the market may not face a firmer pullback before the $98,000-$100,000 zone.
He noted that the reaction at higher levels will help determine whether a more durable recovery is forming or whether recent gains are merely corrective.
Elsewhere, Bitunix analysts said the market has entered a “complex phase of macroeconomic inflection point expectations plus internal capital rotation within crypto,” pointing to ETF flows and uneven liquidation patterns as evidence of divergence in risk appetite.
They expect a continuation of structurally unstable, range-bound trading until bitcoin either holds above $93,000 or breaks below $90,500.
The institutional development helped support a broader sentiment. Vanguard opened access to crypto ETF trading to clients earlier this week, and Bank of America told institutional clients they can allocate 1-4% of portfolios to digital assets. CME launched a VIX-style implied volatility index for bitcoin futures, with versions for ether, solana and XRP to follow.
