The crypto market woke up swinging again — volatility’s high, liquidity’s hungry, and both Bitcoin and altcoins are shaking off last week’s panic flush like nothing happened. With buyers creeping back in and narratives rotating fast, today’s 24H snapshot feels less like chaos… and more like controlled acceleration. Here’s what actually moved the market.
Global crypto market cap rose to roughly 3.13T USD over the last 24 hours, advancing about 2% as risk appetite recovered. Sentiment improved after a violent shakeout earlier in the week, with buyers stepping back in as Bitcoin stabilized above recent panic lows and altcoins rotated higher.
Layer‑2 and privacy narratives outperformed: market commentary highlights L2 tokens edging higher, while Zcash printed one of the strongest moves, signalling renewed appetite for higher‑beta plays. Overall, this looks like a “controlled reflation” phase rather than a full‑blown melt‑up -volatility is elevated, but dips are still getting bought.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remained the same, at 29.
Across major feeds, BTC trades in the low 92K area, up roughly 1–2.5% over the past 24 hours, after briefly dipping below 90K earlier in the week. The rebound is driven by renewed risk appetite in global market s and the perception that the latest flush below 85–90K was more liquidation‑driven than fundamentally justified.
On the narrative side, traders are watching old Silk Road-linked wallets, but on‑chain forensics suggest recent movements look more like internal consolidation than aggressive exchange dumping, reducing crash fears. Combined with still‑strong structural demand from ETF and institutional channels, that supports a “buy‑the‑dip” mindset around the 90K zone.
ETH trades around the low 3,000s in USD, lagging BTC slightly on a percentage basis but holding its key psychological 3K handle. Recent on‑chain reports show staking inflows and large‑wallet accumulation picking up again, even as velocity cooled slightly-typical of a maturing, more “bond‑like” ETH.
Weekly derivatives data shows sizeable long positioning returning after a period of heavy shorts, indicating that speculators are willing to re‑enter as funding and leverage normalize. This combination of staking demand, institutional interest and softening dollar sentiment u nderpins the current ETH floor.
In the BTCUSD position, as expected, the price is consolidating, so we are not doing anything with it.
In the ETHUSD position, we are also not doing anything. We are letting the market ‘decide’ what to do.
Recent live DXY data shows the Dollar Index trading in the high‑90s to low‑100s, having fallen around 0.4–0.6% in the latest session and roughly 1% over the past month. The index is also down over 8% year‑on‑year, underscoring a broader weakening USD trend against major peers.
The main drivers are expectations of easier Fed policy after recent rate moves, plus improved risk sentiment in global equities, which reduces the need for defensive dollar holdings. Historically, such DXY softness supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and high‑beta crypto, as capital rotates from “safe” cash into higher‑return, higher‑volatility assets.
Among large‑ and mid‑cap names, privacy and high‑beta projects dominated the leaderboard in the last day, with Zcash in particular standing out.
ZEC (Zcash)
~+13–16%
Strong spike vs prior day
Privacy narrative plus short covering; watch for mean‑reversion if volume fades.
SEI (Sei)
About −6% (biggest loser)
Elevated, skewed to selling
Volatility magnet; potential bounce candidate after capitulation.
Merlin
Basket +1.5–5%
Sector volume higher
L2s outperform as traders rotate into scaling plays.
Aggregated forecasts and analyst models still point to a constructive path for both BTC and ETH into late 2025, but with heavy volatility around macro events and ETF flows.
For the broader market, the base case is a choppy uptrend: DXY softness and structural crypto adoption are positives, while regulatory headlines and profit‑taking after parabolic runs remain the main risks.
Here are concise, theme‑aligned ideas you can research further-each tied to one of your requested tasks. These are not recommendations, only starting points for due diligence.
In short, the market is behaving like crypto always does — dramatic, unpredictable, yet somehow perfectly logical once the dust settles. BTC and ETH still look constructive, DXY is easing, and altcoins are reminding everyone they still know how to throw a party. Just remember: staying calm during volatility is a superpower. Staying calm and not panic-buying ten random altcoins at 3 AM? That’s legendary.
Source: Coincentral.com, Tradingview.com, Coinranking.com, Coingecko.com, Coinmarketcap.com
More about Crypto market .
Originally published at https://aipt.lt on December 12, 2025.
Bitcoin Breaks Out — The 24H Surge No One Expected was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


