Bitcoin’s Rally Has Room to Run, Analysts Assert, Even as Price Holds at $120K

Crypto Market Catches Breath as Bitcoin Stalls Near $120K; Analysts See More Room to Run

XRP, SUI, and UNI led gains on Monday while the broader crypto market took a pause to digest last week’s strong rally.

Bitcoin nearly reached $123,000 in early trading before retreating during U.S. market hours, slipping under $120,000 and giving back most of its overnight rise. Still, BTC remained up about 0.6% over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum’s ether fell back below $3,000, while dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), and Stellar (XLM) each lost between 2% and 3%.

Top performers among major altcoins included XRP, up 2.5%, SUI, which surged 10%, and Uniswap’s UNI, gaining 6%.

Shares of crypto-linked companies also gave back some earlier gains. MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) stayed up 3%-4%, while Coinbase (COIN) managed a 1.5% increase.

After a more than 10% rally in bitcoin over the past week—and even sharper gains in certain altcoins—analysts believe the market could consolidate as traders take profits. But they emphasize that this rally likely remains in its early stages.

Jeff Dorman, CIO of digital asset investment firm Arca, noted that previous market peaks, such as the March 2024 surge around the spot bitcoin ETF launch and the late 2024/early 2025 excitement over Donald Trump’s election, saw altcoin derivatives open interest surpass bitcoin’s.

“We’re nowhere near that kind of frenzy yet,” Dorman wrote in a Monday note.

While trading volumes across centralized and decentralized exchanges rose 23% week over week, they remain well below the levels seen during past major crypto rallies, Dorman added.

Eric Demuth, CEO of European crypto exchange Bitpanda, said bitcoin’s push higher is driven by growing concerns over sovereign debt and investors searching for protection against monetary inflation.

Demuth said a price of €200,000 ($233,000) for bitcoin is “certainly possible,” but believes the bigger story lies in bitcoin’s adoption across the financial system.

“The real question is what happens once bitcoin becomes embedded in institutional portfolios, sovereign reserves, and global banking infrastructure,” Demuth said. “That’s precisely the shift happening now.”

He projected bitcoin’s market capitalization will steadily approach that of gold, which currently exceeds $22 trillion—roughly nine times larger than bitcoin’s.