Bitcoin falls heavily, but still crushes the rest of the crypto market in Q4

Bitcoin made no noise. It simply resisted. In a crypto market that crumbled silently, the leading crypto fell, yes, but it fell less than the rest. And in this kind of quarter, “less worse” becomes a performance. The data cited by Glassnode mention a persistent relative weakness in almost all segments against BTC, as if liquidity, instead of exploring, had regrouped around the main mast.

A bitcoin falling back, but still the anchor of the crypto market

The painful figure is clear: about 26% decrease over the quarter, for a price around $86,000. On paper, it’s a slap. In the reality of the crypto market, it’s almost a privilege. The overall market would have done slightly worse, around 27.5% over the same period. In other words, the pain is shared, but BTC keeps the role of the least feverish patient.

And this fall has a very concrete consequence on the microstructure of the market: when a drop brought it back to $86,700, a wave of liquidations was immediately observed, with more than $210 million wiped out in one hour and more than $450 million over 24 hours. A sign that many positions were still too exposed to leverage.

The recent session sums up the mood: more than 4% drop in 24 hours, a total capitalization down about 3.8%, and the market falls back below the symbolic $3 trillion mark. Add to that a Fear and Greed still on the Fear side, and you get a crypto market where courage is rare, and where every rebound feels like a question asked too loudly in an already nervous room.

And then there’s the invisible mechanism: liquidations. CoinGlass mentions more than $658 million liquidated during the drop. This detail matters, because it explains why movements sometimes seem exaggerated: when leverage bursts, it’s not a rational sale, it’s a trap opening under the positions.

Bitcoin dominance: rotation happened, but conviction has not returned

According to Bitcoin Vector, the first semester was clearly BTC-led: dominance was rising, Bitcoin played the guide role, and the crypto market followed the trail. Then, in the second semester, the scenario reversed. Dominance began to slip, and capital attempted a rotation towards Ether and other majors, a classic in theory.

Except this rotation did not result in new leadership. It mainly created a gray area. Bitcoin lost its locomotive aura, without the altcoin market really taking over. Result: a crypto market searching for a center of gravity and, for lack of better, intermittently returning to BTC, like returning to a refuge that is criticized but known inside out.

This hesitation is also visible in price structure: bitcoin would be stuck between $85,000 and $94,000, with rebounds often sold off as soon as they appear. Why? Because many buyers would have positioned themselves near the all-time high of October and take advantage of any rise to lighten their positions without too much damage.

Result, a psychological ceiling forms and liquidity becomes thinner: it rises, it hits resistance, it falls back. In this context, Michael Saylor does not deviate: through Strategy, he continues his accumulation strategy and keeps buying bitcoin, betting on these retracements as entry points rather than panic signals.