Bitcoin News Today: Bitcoin Consolidates Near $119,000 as Altcoins Gain Prominence

Bitcoin (BTC) begins the final week of July in a cautious mode as altcoins gain prominence. The price of BTC has been consolidating after reaching an all-time high of $123,000, with liquidation levels causing some traders to feel uneasy. Price targets for the cycle top are converging around $150,000. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak this week amid ongoing pressure to resign. Bitcoin's dominance in the market has decreased, leading to announcements that altseason has already begun. Exchange reserves of BTC are increasing as investors reconsider further holding.

Bitcoin experienced typical volatility as the weekly close approached, with BTC/USD nearing $116,000 before a strong rebound. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed multiple "long wick" candles to the downside, but sellers failed to sway market sentiment for long. Currently at around $119,000, Bitcoin remains a favorite among traders despite growing anticipation of altseason. Popular trader Daan Crypto Trades noted that BTC closed its CME gap immediately after futures opened, marking the sixth week in a row where any gap created was closed on Monday or close to it.

As Cointelegraph reported, BTC price targets hinge on a resistance trend line, which the price is currently attempting to break through. However, fellow trader CrypNuevo warned about another hurdle for bulls on the horizon. He summarized in a thread on X Sunday that wicks to the upside but price not progressing any further could be a sign that market makers are building shorts. CrypNuevo referred to market makers on exchange order books and eyeing liquidity, warned that new lows were looking increasingly tempting. He explained that delta is neutral, with no signs of a short squeeze or long squeeze. However, the biggest individual liquidation level is at $115.3k, which adds more weight to the downside liquidation cluster as a potential pullback.

Another CME futures gap closer to $114,000 was also of interest. If confirmation of the signal 'wicks to the upside but price not progressing any further' is received, the price will quickly drop to this zone, hit liquidations, and fill the gap. Regarding where BTC price action could head next, traders' expectations are noticeably modest in the short term. For popular trader BitBull, $130,000 should be the next stopping-off point for BTC/USD, with a long-term top not far beyond. He told X followers at the weekend that BTC is going through a consolidation phase after a new all-time high. This is actually a good thing as alts are rallying during this. However, he thinks BTC will have another leg up within 2-3 weeks, pumping BTC above $130K and marking the local top. After that, there will be a final leg up in Q4, and BTC will peak above $160,000.

As Cointelegraph continues to report, other cycle top targets in play for months or longer include analyst Aksel Kibar’s $137,000 and X pundit BitQuant’s $145,000, these now increasingly close. Earlier this month, fellow trader analyst Rekt Capital suggested that the top could come within just two to three months. The average July forecast on prediction service Kalshi sees the crowd favoring $124,000. Another quiet week for US macro data keeps markets' focus on the Federal Reserve and Chair Jerome Powell. Powell, already under pressure to cut interest rates amid a barrage of personal criticism from US President Donald Trump, will deliver opening remarks at the Integrated Review of the Capital Framework for Large Banks Conference, Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. The Fed Chair has resisted pressure over his hawkish economic stance, which has included calls for him to step down. Markets whipsawed last week amid rumors that Trump would instead fire Powell, something which the White House then denied.

Ahead of the July 30 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which will decide on whether a rate cut is appropriate, markets show little to no belief that the result will be in risk assets' favor. The latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool puts the odds of a July cut at under 5%. Rising inflation and strong economic data are clouding the outlook for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve even further. Market odds are about evenly split on a quarter-point rate cut in September or no cut at all. Last week’s inflation reports delivered a mixed bag, with the coming days set to deliver around 15% of S&P 500 companies’ earnings as commentators eye the impact of US trade tariffs.

As Bitcoin seeks to cement the bulk of its recent gains, markets are already looking elsewhere for copycat coins. While Ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP) led the pack last week, the altcoin market more broadly is now tipped to follow in Bitcoin’s footsteps and bring about a much-anticipated altseason. Altcap (TOTAL2) [2W] is ready to explode into price discovery. Massive tension has built up within a 4-year Cup & Handle pattern. Popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital summarized over the weekend that Bitcoin remains in the Range and the consolidation continues, facilitating further money flow into Altcoins. Shifts in altcoin performance, in particular thanks to ETH strength, have already had a significant impact on Bitcoin’s dominance of the crypto market cap. After hitting 66%, dominance has collapsed over the past week, now targeting the 60% mark for a support retest — its lowest levels since the start of March. As various commentators note, the drop is the largest in several years. Altseason is here, announced Swissblock head macro economist Henrik Zeberg late last week. Others saw the potential for flash volatility amid an overall optimistic altcoin outlook. Crypto trader, analyst, and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe continued that he is very interested to see how the next week is going to be for Altcoins. Given that we're slightly extended to the upside (short term) in terms of volatility, he would guess we're getting a significant short and violent correction and continue the uptrend. These six months are massively bullish for Altcoins overall.

As BTC price consolidation continues, analysts are increasingly wary of a potential pullback. In recent "Quicktake" blog posts, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant drew attention to two phenomena in particular: exchange BTC reserves and inflows to exchanges from Bitcoin whales. Centralized exchanges’ BTC stocks have hit their highest since June 25. This sustained inflow reflects ongoing profit-taking and distribution by investors — a dynamic that often signals weakening buy-side pressure and hints at a potential corrective phase. Assessing whales, fellow contributor Darkfost subsequently noted that while exchange inflows from whale wallets do not yet match prior local tops, the trend is worth watching. During the previous two market tops, inflows exceeded $75B, which triggered the beginning of a correction/consolidation phase. Currently, the monthly average has just jumped by nearly $17B, rising from $28B to $45B between July 14 and 18.