Bitcoin loses grip near $80,000 as ETH, SOL, DOGE fade on profit-taking

Bitcoin punched $79,388 on Wednesday evening and has been quietly giving it back ever since.

Bitcoin traded at $77,794 on Thursday morning, up 0.4% over 24 hours after peaking at $79,388 at 21:34 IST on Tuesday and drifting lower through the overnight session.

The 24-hour low of $77,464 was set Thursday morning, meaning the full range of the move was about $1,900. Ether slipped 0.7% to $2,344, XRP fell 1.7% to $1.42, Solana dropped 1.5% to $85.83, and BNB declined 0.6% to $635. Bitcoin is the only major positive on 24 hours.

Brent crude held above $95 a barrel as the US maintained its naval blockade on ships going to and from Iranian ports while Iran kept the Strait closed to almost all other international traffic. Iranian gunboats fired on commercial ships in the waterway Wednesday.

Trump's April 7 ceasefire remains in place "indefinitely," but Vice President JD Vance's planned Tuesday trip to Islamabad was called off after Iran declined to send a delegation. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump has not set a firm deadline for an Iranian proposal.

The divergence in the top 10 backs the positioning read. Bitcoin up 4% on the week, every other major within 2% either direction, with ether and Solana actually down.

When a rally concentrates in one asset while the rest of the complex fades, the source of the bid is usually narrow rather than broad.

Bitpanda CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad took the opposite view, arguing the push toward $80,000 signals digital asset industry maturity and resilience backed by institutional participation and clearer regulatory frameworks.

That framing is harder to reconcile with a market where bitcoin is leading by itself on thin altcoin participation and where funding rates have sat negative for roughly 47 consecutive days, one of the longest stretches of bearish derivatives positioning on record.

A slide below $76,000 would mean the $79,388 high printed the top for this leg and the next move requires either genuine Iran progress or a shift in the funding rate picture that pulls real capital back in.