Key Insights:
- Bitcoin price dipped to 88K and remains below 90K, showing weak momentum after a volatile week driven by tariff headlines and risk sentiment.
- Altcoins broadly sold off, with ETH holding below 3K and major names like BNB, XRP, ADA, DOGE, LINK, and XLM in the red.
- Outliers diverged as RIVER surged again while HASH dropped the most.
Altcoin season expectations took a hit this week after the BTC muted trading extended into the weekend, and Bitcoin price slipped back toward $88,000 earlier today. The move offered little support for the rest of the market.
Altcoins also weakened over the past 24 hours. Ethereum stayed below $3,000, reinforcing the risk-off tone. Among larger-cap tokens.
Why Altcoins Retreated While Bitcoin Price Stabilized?
The simplest read of the week’s tape is that Bitcoin price dip to $87,000 did not pull the rest of the market higher afterward. Instead, the rebound largely stayed concentrated in the market’s bellwether.
That pattern tends to show up when traders reduce risk. They move toward the most liquid asset first. They also trim exposure to long-tail coins that can gap lower on thinner books.
It is one reason the Altcoin season can feel strong during momentum bursts, yet fade quickly when volatility returns.
Market Snapshot: Bitcoin Retests $87K As ETH Holds Below $3K
The Bitcoin price returning to the $87K zone is not a theoretical reference. It showed up in spot pricing during the midweek dip, according to the heatmap.
That move followed a broader risk-off stretch earlier in the month, when Bitcoin daily swings widened, and traders leaned on key round-number levels.
ETH price does not regain the psychological $3,000 handle on a sustained basis after the sell-off. In fact, the heat map dataset shows ETH closing below $3,000.
The Ethereum line matters because many rotation cycles run through it. When ETH trends cleanly, it often pulls large-cap altcoins with it, then smaller tokens. When ETH stalls, breadth usually narrows.
Ethereum price fell sharply this month, then spent the following days mostly under $3,000, including a low of $2,867.89.
That is not a minor detail. It anchors why traders hesitated to call a renewed Altcoin season off the back of bitcoin’s resilience alone.
Bitcoin price has shown it can revisit the lower of $87,000 and still recover without a deeper drawdown, at least so far.
Ethereum price has remained capped under $3,000 in recent sessions. And breadth has not produced the kind of synchronized upside that typically defines a convincing Altcoin season Index.
This leaves investors watching the same practical markers. For context, the traders are evaluating whether ETH price can reclaim $3,000 on the close and whether large-cap Altcoins regain momentum alongside it.
Besides, they are also wondering whether the market’s “green” days start to include more sectors at once rather than one corner of the board.
This week’s price action put the Altcoin season narrative back on probation. Bitcoin price revisited the $87K area during January trading, then stabilized, while ETH continued to print sub-$3,000 closes.
Quantify Crypto’s heatmap approach, built to surface real-time strength and weakness while filtering out stablecoins and wrapped tokens that fit the moment, because it emphasizes breadth over slogans.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/01/26/bitcoin-price-hits-87000-again-altcoins-retreat-while-eth-stays-below-3000/
