Bitcoin charts next phase

The broader crypto market ticked higher on the back of some retirement savings industry news that spurred decent upward moves by a few major altcoins, including Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Dogecoin. The total value of global digital assets rose 3% in 24 hours to hit $3.9 trillion.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, has started to try to climb out of an icy mountaintop crevasse in which it appears trapped.

BTC as of early Thursday morning had risen 2% in 24 hours to reach nearly $116,400. Stiff resistance lurks around the bend at $116,900. The biggest coin is down 2% since last week at this time. It is 5% off its ATH of $122,838 reached three weeks ago, according to CoinGecko.

Stubborn sideways behavior is something to which holders have grown accustomed this year. Any semblance of a new leg up will depend on fresh demand and renewed confidence, BeInCrypto said.

What appears to have happened this long, hot summer, is that BTC, after reaching its zenith, slipped below $116K and then struck an "air gap" of low liquidity. That there is such limited historically traceable buying activity in the $111K-$115K zone owes to BTC almost instantaneously catapulting from $109K to $118K on route to the July 14 apex.

Short-term holders have been under pressure of late due to collapsing BTC fund flows, suggesting faltering demand. However, yesterday BTC ETF inflows turned positive again (+$92M), reversing a four-day outflow streak, and possibly signaling yet another new shift in investor sentiment (Decrypt).

Part of the overall grassy-green setting today owes to news that President Trump is set to sign an executive order allowing crypto in 401(k) retirement plans (CNBC).

The good news for the original memecoin is that in the past 24 hours it sprang back above 20 cents. The even better news is that there apparently does exist a future in which Dogecoin eventually breaks out to surpass its record high of $0.73 reached right around the time Elon Musk hosted SNL back in May of 2021.

The bad news? DOGE has now entered the longest period below its ATH in its history, points out NewsBTC, referencing a VisionPulsed analysis.

An extended period of tightly coiled posturing isn't necessarily the end of the world. But, in DOGE's case, we could be confronting eternal questions. Because while it continues to maintain an enormous market capitalization north of $30 billion, DOGE still remains locked in what VisionPulsed calls a “bearish forever” pattern.

“First cycle was 1,200 days," he said. "The second cycle was 1,126. Right now, we are at a staggering 1,550-plus days.”

That milestone isn't just symbolic, either. Rather, it reflects deep "structural weakness in DOGE’s market cycle," NewsBTC said.

Seeking to derive organic DeFi opportunities from the world's largest digital asset, a layer-2 network called Build on Bitcoin (BOB) continues to garner funding from a slew of venture capital heavyweights, including Amber Group, Anchorage and Castle Island.

In the latest $9.5M million raise, BOB tapped existing investors who were more than happy to double down.

“We continue to believe that Bitcoin will be the bedrock of DeFi," Nic Carter, founding partner of Castle Island, told Cointelegraph.

Now look for announcements pertaining to a project, set for launch, known as the "BitVM bridge." It'll be designed to allow BOB's native asset (Bitcoin, naturally) to be put into use facilitating transfers to other chains, such as Ethereum and Solana.

“Apps and wallets everywhere will be able to access native BTC DeFi via BOB,” said Dominik Harz, BOB's CTO.

BOB’s testnet recently went live; a mainnet launch is planned for Q4.