Bitcoin (BTC) Fails to Hold Above $85K, Market Cap Drops by 1.69%

Cryptocurrency markets experienced significant fluctuations on March 21, 2025, as Bitcoin failed to maintain its value above $85,000

Cryptocurrency markets experienced significant fluctuations on March 21, 2025, as Bitcoin failed to maintain its value above $85,000, and other major digital currencies also faced downward trends. The global crypto market cap decreased by 1.69% to stand at $2.76 trillion, indicating a general decline in trading momentum.

Among the top cryptocurrency movers, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $84,537.58, down approximately 1.62% over the past 24 hours. The daily trading range for Bitcoin was between $83,647.19 and $86,481.36. Bitcoin's dominance in the market is currently at 60.60%, marking a slight decrease of 0.01% from previous levels. It is notable that Bitcoin had surged to a high of $85,900 on March 20, 2025, ahead of US President Donald Trump's address at Blockwork's crypto digital asset summit, where he reiterated his support for the cryptocurrency industry.

However, despite this optimistic sentiment, Bitcoin encountered hurdles as market indicators showed a weakening trend. According to CryptoQuant, the Bitcoin Bull Score Index has dropped to 20, which signifies that only two out of ten key metrics remain bullish, reflecting the lowest sentiment in over two years. This assessment raises concerns about the sustainability of Bitcoin's price recovery.

Moving on to Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, it slipped below the $2,000 mark. The token was valued at $1,979.90, reflecting a decrease of around 2% during this timeframe. On March 20, Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) observed net outflows totaling $12.41 million. The largest outflow, amounting to $8.96 million, was recorded by BlackRock's Ethereum ETF (ETHA). Currently, the total net asset value of Ethereum ETFs stands at $6.79 billion, which constitutes 2.84% of Ethereum's overall market value.

Among other top cryptocurrencies, XRP experienced a decline of over 2%, trading at $2.42. The digital asset reached an intraday low of $2.39 and peaked at $2.52. Interestingly, there has been a notable accumulation trend among XRP whales, holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens, who have increased their holdings by 10% recently, bringing their total to approximately 5.81 billion XRP, which is valued at around $14 billion. This trend contrasts with mixed activity reported among larger wallets holding between 10 million and 100 million XRP.

Solana (SOL) also witnessed a downturn, crashing by about 4% to trade at $128.39, with its trading volume plummeging by 36% to $2.33 billion.

In the broader crypto landscape, Pi (PI) led the declines with a staggering 18.54% drop in the last 24 hours, bringing its price down to $0.9417. Other notable losers included PancakeSwap (CAKE), which fell by 6.79%, and Helium (HNT), which dropped by 5.68%.

Despite unfavorable movements among the top cryptocurrencies, some coins did experience gains. Kava (KAVA) surged by 10.08%, trading at $0.5649, while Form (FORM) recorded a 7.89% increase to reach $1.81. Other modest gainers included Bonk (BONK) and Story IP, both showing respectable rises in their respective values.

The trading environment reflected a cautious atmosphere among investors, likely influenced by the broader macroeconomic factors that have shaped market dynamics. Historical data suggests that a struggling market often leads to shifts in investor sentiment, and with volatility indicators rising, many participants may be reassessing their positions.

Broader cryptocurrency activity showed that while certain digital assets suffered significant losses, others maintained a degree of stability. For example, Avalanche's (AVAX) price fell by 3.12% to $19.14; however, it had experienced a recent uptrend of 2% prior to that. The trading volume for Avalanche decreased by 10% over the past week, and the circulating supply edged up slightly, currently estimated to be 57.56% of its maximum supply, at 414.46 million coins.

Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a remarkable increase in trading activity, with its volume spiking by over 55% to approximately $1.31 billion, translating to nearly 7.68 billion DOGE traded within the last 24 hours