The BTC chart is currently the most confusing thing you'll ever see out there; pumps to 74k, dumps to 68k and them back to 70k and stabilizes there. It's been that way for over two weeks.
Many are seeing the pumps as a bullish chart others are not even sure what to make of it. Basically we should be getting constant dumps that should push us back into the 40k range and a possible bottom towards the end of the year, but the BTC market is currently not looking bearish.
This is not typical of a bear market year, but we could look at the bigger picture and pinpoint a few things that could be happening.
What is happening?
It could be that since BTC never really performed too well at its peak, perhaps it's currently holding up to compensate for that.
It could be that we're still going to experience that massive dump and the decline will be sharp and massive instead of that slow bear market bleed that we're mostly familiar with.
Also this current price might be a bear trap for people who think this year is still a bull market year.
One more possibility is the interest of retail and institutional money. At the money retail is currently buying a lot of BTC, perhaps think this a price point to buy, or maybe they're just tired of altcoins not moving and decided to move their stash to BTC.
My point is that this cycle was a terrible one for alts and if people actually dump their alts to buy BTC, we could see the price of BTC actually holding up well even though we should be experiencing heavy bleed in this time of the market.
All these possibilities are from my analytical point of view, I could be wrong, but I think the most realistic of all these possibilities is that BTC might still experience a huge dump as part of that market cleansing which might still wipe out 50% of the alt market.
In reality, the bleeding can continue into 2027 and finally begin pumping again, just before the BTC halving in early Q2 of 2027.
Sentiments
While the market is currently not bad, the sentiments are nothing to write home about and this is simply because the expected euphoric market situation 80% of people expected didn't happen and this is the reason why everyone has probably given up on the market.
I didn't do any abrupt analysis of the alt market because it's currently looking like an unstable market condition. It's looking deadish with almost no one having anything positive to say. However we all know crypto can be very funny and the sentiment could be different in a year or two.
Don't trust this instead, take it with a pinch of salt. Prepare for the worst, but don't write off any alt project token that you're vested on.
Take a break
This is one of the most wholesome things you can do. When I mean take a break, I don't mean to sit out any opportunity, my point is basically to stay away from any price expectations at least for 2 years.
Perhaps build something outside crypto, explore more opportunities outside your convenience. It's also important to emotionally detach oneself, else's you'll make the wrong decision, like dumping it all and coming back in 2 years to regret it all.