Bitcoin Can't Shatter $73K — Third Rejection Has the Market Saying 'We Need a Bigger Hammer'

Bitcoin drifted back to $71,843 on Friday after its third consecutive failure to punch through $73,000, a level that's been serving as an immovable ceiling since the ceasefire announcement on Tuesday. To be fair, the rejection stings less when you remember Bitcoin is still up 7.9% for the week — its best weekly performance since the conflict kicked off. It even reclaimed the 50-day moving average for the first time in months, which is basically the crypto equivalent of finally getting a compliment.

Ether sat at $2,189, up 6.6% on the week. Solana's SOL climbed 5.1% to $83.09. XRP added 2.8% to $1.34. Dogecoin managed a 2.4% bump to $0.092. Fun fact: the entire top 10 is green on the weekly chart for the first time in over a month. Take that, bears.

But $73,000 remains stubbornly elusive. Each attempt since the ceasefire has produced a rally that faded within hours, forming a pattern eerily similar to pre-ceasefire trading — just shifted a few thousand dollars north. Instead of grinding between $65,000 and $73,000, Bitcoin is now grinding between $70,000 and $73,000. Exciting, right?

"We will need to wait for the price to rise above $75,000 before we can speak of the market entering an active bullish phase," said Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro's chief market analyst, in a note to CoinDesk. He noted Bitcoin remains above the 50-day moving average, reinforcing short-term bullish sentiment, but flagged the repeated rejection at $73,000 as the barrier that needs to break.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz set the bar even higher, saying the key conditions for Bitcoin to resume its uptrend are consolidation above $74,000