Bitcoin climbed above $92,000 on Tuesday, supported by a sharp rise in trading activity, as investors increasingly shifted capital into altcoins led by privacy-focused tokens and rebounding memecoins.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose to about $92,000 after daily trading volume jumped 25 percent to roughly $37 billion, underscoring renewed interest following weeks of subdued price action.
The next major test for bitcoin lies at $94,500, a resistance level that has rejected advances three times since early December. A decisive break above that threshold could open a move toward $100,000 for the first time since November and signal a reversal from a corrective trend that has been in place since October.
While bitcoin consolidated near resistance, activity across the broader crypto market intensified. Dash surged as much as 60 percent, its strongest rally in more than five years, after breaking out in early Asian trading, triggering liquidations of about $1.3 million in short positions, according to CoinGlass data.
Monero also outperformed, rising more than eight percent over the same period, highlighting growing investor appetite for privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies.
Market rotation toward smaller tokens was reflected in index performance, with the CoinDesk 80 Index of liquid altcoins gaining 2.44 percent so far this week, compared with a 1.33 percent increase in the more bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 20 Index. The divergence suggests traders are temporarily favoring higher-beta altcoins over major assets such as bitcoin and ether.
Despite the rally, derivatives markets signaled caution. Crypto exchanges liquidated about $180 million worth of leveraged futures positions in the past 24 hours, hitting both bullish and bearish bets and pointing to choppy trading conditions. Implied volatility for bitcoin and ether options remains subdued, while open interest in futures has stayed largely flat as traders await key U.S. inflation data due later on Tuesday.
Read also:Crypto liquidation hits $583m as Bitcoin slides to $86,000
Positioning in CME-listed bitcoin and ether futures also remains light, with the futures premium hovering just below five percent, only marginally above the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury. The narrow spread indicates reduced appeal for cash-and-carry arbitrage strategies that previously offered double-digit returns.
Elsewhere, memecoins showed renewed momentum after a prolonged lull. Trading volume on Solana-based token issuer Pump.fun has already matched December’s total just halfway through January, setting a daily record along the way, according to DefiLlama. Newly issued tokens, however, continue to struggle, with several recent listings trading sharply below their debut levels despite the broader market strength.
Although clear market catalysts remain scarce in 2026, analysts say geopolitical and economic instability in countries such as Venezuela and Iran could fuel longer-term demand for cryptocurrencies as alternatives to traditional financial systems. For now, traders appear content to rotate into altcoins while bitcoin hovers just below a critical breakout level.
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