Bitcoin (BTC) ranged for a second consecutive time this month as fresh bearish pressures kept prices suppressed.

Bitcoin (BTC) ranged for a second consecutive time this month as fresh bearish pressures kept prices suppressed. The broader market, however, recovered to levels last seen at the start of the month.

Bitcoin price ranged for a second consecutive time this month as fresh bearish pressures kept the flagship crypto suppressed. However, the broader market recovered to levels last seen at the start of the month.

As of late Asian trading hours on Friday, the total cryptocurrency market cap stood at around $2.95 trillion. In the previous week, market sentiment improved, recovering 13 points to neutral levels.

Altcoin traders entered the weekend with modest gains, while a handful of prominent projects stood out in terms of weekly gains.

Why is Bitcoin down this week?

Bitcoin traders entered this week with cautious optimism as inflation concerns cooled off. However, by the end of the week, fresh bearish pressure prevented the flagship crypto from gaining a foothold above the $85k support level.

The decline followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff on all imported automobiles, set to take effect on April 2. The move put pressure on risk assets across the board, with Bitcoin falling in tandem with US equities as the correlation between the two markets continued to rise.

Adding to the pressure, US inflation data released on March 28 showed stronger-than-expected results. While headline PCE numbers aligned with forecasts at 0.3% m-o-m and 2.5% y-o-y, core PCE figures came 0.1% higher than expected, at 0.2%, hinting at persistent inflationary pressures.

By the end of the week, BTC seemed to have lost momentum as it moved to test multi-week lows.

Will Bitcoin go up?

Analysts remained sceptical about the broader crypto market, noting that Bitcoin’s recent stability above $80,000 hasn’t yet confirmed a recovery.

Veteran trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe noted the “trend remains to be upwards” for BTC, but admitted it’s beginning to “look slightly less good.” In a recent X post, he warned that a break below $84,000 may “see a test at $78–80K and perhaps lower” before the price recovers.

At press time, Bitcoin was quickly approaching those levels.

Fellow trader AlphaBTC echoed that caution, emphasising that Bitcoin needs to hold above the monthly open at $84,300, a key level which Bitcoin “must hold” to avoid ending the month in the red.

According to the analyst, Bitcoin might be drifting towards that level and into “max pain” territory, referring to the Friday March options expiry, which could add further pressure before the month wraps up.

More bearish predictions came from well-followed market commentator Ted Pillows, who predicted a drop towards $74,000 if BTC fails to make a weekly close above $89,000.

On the weekly chart, Bitcoin had formed a falling wedge pattern, the analyst noted in a March 28 X post. See below.

Yet the bull run isn’t over just yet, according to analysts at CryptoQuant. In a recent Quicktake blog, they pointed to four on-chain metrics that are currently in flux, showing signs of short-term turbulence, but not signaling a cycle top.

These include the MVRV ratio, NUPL, and the Inter-Exchange Flow Pulse (IFP), which turned bearish back in February.

Contributor Burak Kesmeci noted that while “Bitcoin is experiencing significant turbulence,” none of the data points suggest things have overheated. For sentiment to shift, he added, the IFP needs to climb back above its 90-day simple moving average.

As of the last check on Friday at 4 p.m. GMT, Bitcoin was trading at $84,264, showing no gains on the weekly timeframe.

Altcoin market recovers

The total altcoin market capitalization hit a weekly high of $1.25 trillion before receding to $1.21 trillion by late Friday.

Bitcoin remained the dominating force in the market with the altcoin seasonality index at 17, four points lower than the previous week.

Although the vast majority of the top 99 altcoins had failed to recover from last week’s losses, the top gainers of the week all posted double-digit gains: Cronos, Berachain and Four.

Cronos (CRO) shot up 37% over the past week, exchanging hands at $0.106 when writing, while its market cap stood at $2.83 billion. Trading activity also picked up big time, going from $67 million to $140 million during the same period.

Cronos price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Most of this week’s gains came from reports that Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, is partnering with Crypto.com to launch a series of exchange-traded funds under the Truth.Fi brand, including