Bitcoin Price, XRP Fall Again. Where Cryptos May Be Heading Next. — Barrons.com

By Adam Clark

Bitcoin was falling and other cryptocurrencies were mixed on Friday. The crypto sector could be set for a further drop after its recent strong rally, according to analysts.

Bitcoin was down 2.4% over the past 24 hours early on Friday, at around $115,559 sharply down from its 24-hour high of above $119,000. The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a record high of $123,166 last week amid excitement over crypto-related legislation championed by the Trump administration.

"A reversal to growth will be needed to stop the build-up of pessimism for the entire crypto market, where corrective sentiment is intensifying, " wrote Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro chief market analyst, in a research note. "If we look only at BTCUSD, a decline to $111K — the area of previous peaks — fits well into the pattern of a corrective pullback."

Other large cryptocurrencies were mixed, with Ether rising 0.8%, XRP falling 1.1%, and Solana down 3.8%. Memecoin Dogecoin was down 4.1%.

"We observe that the recent drop in Bitcoin dominance to around 59-61%... suggests capital rotation into altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and BNB, which have posted gains of 20-40% recently," wrote Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research. "For momentum to sustain into mid-to-late Q3, we need Bitcoin dominance to fall below 60% consistently, and rising funding rates without excessive leverage."

Crypto-related stocks were suffering Friday. MicroStrategy was down 2.6% in premarket trading, a day after outlining its plans for a preferred stock offering to raise more money to buy Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global was down 1.8% and Robinhood Markets was falling 1%.

For future catalysts, crypto investors are looking to lawmakers. President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law last Friday, establishing a framework for federal regulation of so-called stablecoins. The focus is now on the Clarity Act, which addresses the question of whether cryptos are commodities or securities, and what regulator would oversee them. The legislation still needs to pass the Senate.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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