Crypto market soars: BTC hits $96k, Ethereum tops $3,300, altcoins follow

The cryptocurrency markets were buoyant in trade on Wednesday, January 16. The flagship digital currency, Bitcoin, rose over 4 per cent to reclaim the $96,000 mark, breaking multi-week resistance levels, as spot buying and higher open interest supported prices.

 

Ethereum gained more than 7 per cent, crossing $3,300, driven by solid network activity and strong trading volumes. Altcoins also moved higher, with Cardano, Stellar, and Dogecoin registering gains of around 9–10 per cent.

 

The rally, analysts said, appears driven by spot accumulation and improving risk appetite, with on-chain data showing liquidations of short positions as Bitcoin moved above key resistance levels.

 

According to CoinSwitch Markets Desk, the upward movement is attributed to the favorable sentiment created by the US CPI data, which showed inflation remained stable at 2.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), easing fears of further Federal Reserve rate hikes. “The data points to a balanced macro environment: prices are still rising, but neither accelerating nor collapsing, supporting risk assets like crypto,” said CoinSwitch Markets Desk. 

Bitcoin faces resistance at $98,000, Ethereum eyes $3,500

Amid this, the flagship token has seen profit booking at higher levels and slipped below the $96,000 mark but continues to trade higher on Wednesday. At the last check, the largest digital asset by market capitalisation was trading at $94,870, up 3.33 per cent, with a 24-hour trading volume of $60.14 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. The asset has oscillated between $91,727 and $96,011 in the past 24 hours. Notably, Bitcoin is still about 24 per cent shy of its all-time high of $126,198, set on October 7, 2025.

 

Meanwhile, Ethereum was trading at $3,328.76, up 6.43 per cent, with a 24-hour trading volume of $33.4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. The token oscillated between $3,118 and $3,357 over the past 24 hours.  ALSO READ | Budget 2026-27: FinMin in talks with Sebi, RBI on crypto exchanges 

From a technical standpoint, Riya Sehgal, research analyst at Delta Exchange, believes that Bitcoin now faces resistance near the $98,000–$100,000 range, while Ethereum is eyeing $3,500 as the next target.  “A short-term consolidation phase is possible before further gains. Overall sentiment remains bullish, supported by both institutional and retail inflows,” said Sehgal.

Altcoins trade higher

The sentiment extended to the broader altcoin space as well. Among the top gainers were Dash (DASH), Story (IP), Pepe (PEPE), Optimism (OP), Internet Computer (ICP), Celestia (TIA), Pump.fun (PUMP), Ethena (ENA), Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), Hedera (HBAR), World Liberty Financial (WLFI), Stellar (XLM), Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), Arbitrum (ARB), Polkadot (DOT), Immutable (IMX), Worldcoin (WLD), Aptos (APT), Polygon (POL), ether.fi (ETHFI), Midnight (NIGHT), Morpho (MORPHO), Bonk (BONK), Injective (INJ), Cardano (ADA), Jupiter (JUP), Algorand (ALGO), Aerodrome Finance (AERO), Curve DAO Token (CRV), and Avalanche (AVAX), with gains ranging between 7 per cent and 31 per cent.

 

Conversely, MemeCore (M), Nexo (NEXO), and Render (RENDER) were in the red, falling up to 4.5 per cent.  ALSO READ | Pakistan bets big on crypto: Here's why the rush is raising concerns

Top trending cryptocurrencies today

Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), Dash (DASH), Pepe (PEPE), SPACE_INTO_COIN Node Wave (SPACE), POOL Impulse Empire_of_Sight (SIGHT), Validator Trove_RWA_Coin DeFi (TROVE), and Compute Immunefi_Coin AI (IMU) were the top trending cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap on Wednesday.