Cryptocurrencies Stuck in a Narrow Consolidation Range… When Will the Tedious Range-Bound Market End?

▲ Bitcoin/AI-generated image by Gemini ©

As the cryptocurrency market has shrunk to a $2.3 trillion valuation and remains trapped in a narrow trading range, Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship asset, has failed to rebound while major institutions have begun offloading their holdings, signaling strong signs of a bearish market across the board.

According to investment media outlet FXStreet on February 27 (local time), the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has retreated to Thursday’s low of $2.3 trillion. Over the past three weeks, the market has been unable to break out of a tight consolidation range between $2.2 trillion and $2.4 trillion, exhibiting the classic characteristics of a strong bear market where selling pressure intensifies with every price increase. Bitcoin, facing downward pressure alongside Wall Street tech stocks, has fallen below $67,000 and is slipping weakly after giving back nearly half of Tuesday’s short-term rebound gains.

Negative factors fueling market anxiety continue to mount. Tether (USDT) reserves held on exchanges have plunged from $60 billion to $51.1 billion over the past two months. CryptoQuant warned that if this figure falls below $50 billion, it could trigger a large-scale sell-off in the digital asset market. Meanwhile, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stated that Bitcoin has completely failed as a store of value and offered a bleak outlook that its price could collapse to $10,000 by the middle of this century.

The exodus of institutional investors and corporations is also becoming more apparent. Strategy, which has accumulated massive debt to purchase Bitcoin, now ranks first among U.S. large-cap companies in short interest, reflecting deep market distrust in its Bitcoin treasury strategy. Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) firm GD Culture Group (GDC), which had amassed 7,500 Bitcoin and ranked 15th among publicly listed companies in holdings, has decided to sell its Bitcoin to fund a share buyback program. Major Ethereum (ETH) holders are also offloading their assets at a loss, while digital asset treasury firm ETHZilla has officially scrapped its Ethereum accumulation strategy and pivoted toward tokenized real-world assets (RWA).

Despite the deepening bear market, ecosystem development continues. Ethereum developers have outlined a roadmap featuring seven hard forks every six months through 2029, beginning this year with the Glamsterdam and Hegota upgrades. Meanwhile, DeFi platform Aave reached a historic milestone by surpassing $1 trillion in total lending volume, becoming the first decentralized finance platform to achieve the mark.

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