Bitcoin (BTC) staged a sharp intraday rebound on Wednesday, briefly reclaiming the $90,000 level during early U.S. trading before giving back gains. The move caused a flush of millions of dollars of leveraged positions, while altcoins followed similar patterns. The world’s largest cryptocy climbed as high as $90,336 on leading crypto exchanges shortly after the U.S. stock market opened, marking its first move above $90,000 since last weekend.
The rally, however, proved short-lived as Bitcoin later retreated toward the $88,000–$86,000 range, underscoring persistent selling pressure near the psychological resistance level. Bitcoin’s broader trend still looks heavy. The asset is down about 8% on the month and nearly 32% below its October 2025 record close, a reminder that the $90K area remains hard to crack.
As of writing, Bitcoin is trading at
$86,358, down 1.73% over the past 24 hours, according to TradingView. Once the push above $90,000 failed, leverage unwound fast. In just one hour, more than $238 million in positions were liquidated across the market, according to
Coinglass. Ethereum (ETH) took the biggest hit, with roughly $49.2 million wiped out, followed by Bitcoin at $25.9 million and Solana (SOL) at $5.6 million.
Liquidations hit both long and short sides almost equally, a sign that no one really had conviction. Bybit led the damage with about $72.2 million wiped out, followed by Hyperliquid at $56.7 million and Binance at $49.5 million. In the end, Bitcoin’s rejection near $90K ultimately caught traders leaning in both directions.
As Bitcoin lost momentum, pockets of the altcoin market moved on their own. Midnight (NIGHT) stood out, jumping more than 13% on unusually heavy volume above $1.6 billion. Morpho (MORPHO) followed with gains near 9%, while Merlin Chain (MERL) posted a more modest rise of just over 5%, reflecting selective risk-taking rather than a broad altcoin rally. Even with a few names catching bids, the wider altcoin market stayed choppy, as traders picked their spots instead of going all-in.
Institutional activity continues to tilt the narrative, subtly influencing how investors are positioning around major altcoins. In Brazil, Valour secured approval yesterday to list a
Solana ETP (VSOL) on the B3 exchange, giving local investors a regulated way to gain SOL exposure through familiar brokerage accounts.
At the same time, CME Group pushed further into crypto by rolling out
spot-quoted futures for XRP and Solana. The new contracts track live prices more closely and sit alongside major U.S. equity indices, a sign that institutional desks want more flexible ways to trade crypto risk.
For Bitcoin, the story remains clear. Bitcoin’s repeated stumbles around $90,000 have turned that zone into a clear near-term cap. With buyers hesitant to step in, the market feels stuck in a grind, marked by sharp swings, liquidation-driven moves, and money rotating into a handful of altcoins rather than a clean upside push.