Bitcoin, currently trading at $75,460.65, is experiencing a familiar pattern just shy of the $80,000 mark, hindered by sellers despite recent stablecoin liquidity and ETF demand suggesting a potential breakout. The cryptocurrency briefly surpassed $79,000 during Asian trading hours before retreating to trade below $78,000, resulting in a 0.4% loss over the past 24 hours.
Ether has fallen 0.6%, XRP is down 0.8%, and Solana's SOL has dropped over 1%, with broader market benchmarks also under pressure. According to FxPro's chief market analyst, Alex Kuptsikevich, the $80,000 level is acting as a short-term barrier due to concentrated sell orders. Kuptsikevich believes the pullback appears temporary, aligning with a broader uptrend that began in late March. On-chain and ETF data support this view, with Binance recording a net inflow of roughly $3.4 billion in stablecoins this month and U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs pulling in $2.44 billion in investor money.
However, security risks in DeFi continue to impact sentiment, with the SUI-based lending platform Scallop being exploited, resulting in the loss of approximately 150,000 SUI. This adds to a growing list of attacks, including the Drift and KelpDAO exploits, with DeFi protocols losing an estimated $623 million to hacks in April alone.