Bitcoin Soars Past $102K—Why Crypto Markets Are Still on Edge (Market Watch)

Bitcoin's bull run isn't calming nerves—despite punching past $102K, traders brace for turbulence.

Here's why the crypto euphoria feels fragile.

### The $102K Mirage

BTC's rally looks unstoppable—until you spot the derivatives market sweating bullets. Open interest screams leverage, and liquidity? Thin as a VC's patience during a bear market.

### Altcoins: Dancing on a Knife's Edge

Ethereum's gas fees are back to 'unironically expensive' levels, while memecoins flip harder than a hedge fund's moral compass. Retail FOMO meets institutional hesitation—classic crypto whiplash.

### The Elephant in the Room

Regulators haven't blinked. The SEC's lawsuit backlog now doubles as a drinking game for crypto lawyers. Meanwhile, TradFi sharks still pretend they 'don't get' DeFi—right before quietly allocating 3% of their portfolio to it.

Bottom line: Markets climb walls of worry, but crypto scales cliffs of outright suspicion. Buckle up.

Bitcoin Price Bounces to $102K

As we reported yesterday, the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated. The US joined the war and striked three strategic Irany sites, causing immediate turmoil on international markets with crypto being no exception.

In response, Iran threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz – a critical chokepoint for oil transport, which resulted in even more highly elevated oil prices.

Amid all of this, Bitcoin’s price tumbled below $100,000 for the first time since May and reached an intraday bottom at around $98,000.

The bulls took control, however, and managed ot stage a recovery, with the price currently trading at slightly less than $102,000. The situation remains obviously uncertain, however, and very volatile, which can be seen by the elevated liquidaitons across derivatives markets. Coinglass reports over $600M liquidated in the past 24 hours – that figured surpassed $1 billion yesterday.

Altcoins Remain Shaky

Some altcoins managed to recover better than BTC throughout the same period, while others remain largely in the red. A notable example here is HYPE, which is up by almost 6% in the past 24 hours, where the broader majority of major altcoins are trading either flat or continue losing value against BTC.

Story (IP), alongside Sonic (S), and KAIA are the best-performing cryptocurrencies for the day, up in the range between 7.5% and 10%.

On the other hand, Mantle’s MNT and Bitget Token (BGB) failed to capitalize on the recovery and are down by 3.7% and 2.9%, respectively.