Market overview
The second half of May has rewritten the trend. Bitcoin extended its decline below $74,000 and bottomed at $72,470 in early Asian hours Thursday, per NewsBTC's hourly read of Kraken data, before settling near $72,844 at the time of writing. The 100-hour simple moving average sits overhead. The 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the $77,810 to $72,470 leg also caps any bounce attempt at $73,800.
Ether took the harder hit. Down more than 6% on the week and trading around $1,990, ETH has erased gains back to late-March levels. Zcash printed an 8%-plus drawdown in 24 hours. Solana, while resilient on price, contributed $26 million to the liquidation tally - a distant third behind BTC and ETH.
The macro tape isn't helping. Credit card debt at US commercial banks hit a record $1.09 trillion, per Crypto Briefing's read of Federal Reserve data. JD Vance told reporters the US and Iran are 'very close' to a ceasefire extension - a binary headline risk that hasn't been priced either way.
BTC and ETH
Bitcoin's structure favors the bears for now. Price trades below both the $74,000 pivot and the 100-hour SMA, with a descending trend line capping rallies at $73,750 on the hourly BTC/USD chart. A close above $74,500 opens $75,150, the 50% retracement. A break below $72,000 puts $70,500 in play, and $70,000 becomes the line where the structural bull case has to defend.