Bitcoin holds below ATH as Ethereum rallies; altcoins gain momentum

Bitcoin price today, July 21, 2025: The flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), after a 19 per cent rally over the past three weeks, remains in consolidation mode, trading just below its all-time highs. It continues to consolidate and remain range-bound after seeing profit booking at higher levels. At the last check, it was trading at around $119,189, up by 1.12 per cent, but nearly 3.2 per cent lower from its all-time high of $123,091 scaled on July 14 this month.

 

Bitcoin has fluctuated in the range of $116,550 – $119,239 in the last 24 hours, with a trading volume of $62.97 billion on CoinMarketCap.

 

Harish Vatnani, head of trade at ZebPay, believes that traders are now eyeing a key resistance trend line that could determine whether Bitcoin can break through to price discovery above $123,000. On the sentiment front, nearly 50 per cent of all crypto-related social media activity this week focused on Bitcoin—a level of dominance that may hint at a local top and open the door for a short-term pullback before the next leg up.

 

On a broader time frame, the BTC price has broken through an 8-year resistance line that previously failed to break between 2017 and 2021. "If it closes and sustains above the resistance trendline, we may expect it to rally further up to $130,000–$150,000. The key support levels are now at $110,000 and $100,000," said Vatnani. 

Ethereum outperforms amid growing momentum

Riya Sehgal, research analyst at Delta Exchange, believes that new momentum is building in the crypto markets, with Ethereum clearly taking the spotlight. At the last check, Ethereum was trading at $3,794, higher by 4 per cent, with a trading volume of $47.02 billion. ETH has traded in the range of $3,671 – $3,819 in the last 24 hours.

 

Driven by historic spot ETF inflows and increased corporate treasury interest, ETH has significantly outperformed Bitcoin. "This divergence is reshaping market structure, with ETH expanding its trading range and weekly option premiums soaring, indicating heightened trader expectations. Meanwhile, Bitcoin dominance has dipped to 61 per cent, a 6.37 per cent drop over the past month, signaling early signs of an altcoin season," said Sehgal.

 

XRP’s new all-time high and the broader strength in altcoins like SOL point to growing investor appetite beyond BTC. With upcoming US jobless claims and PMI data in focus, volatility, Sehgal believes, may remain elevated, offering traders both risk and opportunity.

 

Altcoins gain strength on renewed investor interest

Amidst this, altcoins have gained strength, with Solana rising above $185, while DOGE is approaching $0.28, and Cardano is trading above $0.86. Conflux (CFX) leads the top gainers with a mammoth 98 per cent jump, followed by JasmyCoin up 15 per cent, and DogeWithHat up 13 per cent. Meanwhile, Curve dropped by 3.66 per cent and Tron by 2.12 per cent.

 

As the ETH price rises, spot Ethereum ETFs saw over $2.1 billion in inflows last week, marking their largest weekly inflows since inception, according to the CoinDCX research team. On the other hand, institutions like Bitmine, Sharplink, Bit Digital, and others are quietly accumulating ETH, adding to the buying pressure for the token.