Crypto market update, Feb 18: Bitcoin steadies at $96K, Sonic rallies 17%, Solana stumbles

The cryptocurrency market remained volatile on February 18, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading near $96,000, while Ethereum (ETH) gained 2%.

However, XRP and Solana (SOL) saw losses, reflecting ongoing investor uncertainty.

Despite the choppy movement, Sonic (S) emerged as the top performer, surging 17% in the past 24 hours.

The broader crypto market continues to face pressure from rising US inflation and unchanged interest rates, which have kept investors cautious.

However, a spike in trading volume suggests heightened market activity, with some assets seeing increased demand.

The global crypto market cap declined by 0.26% from the previous day, settling at $3.18 trillion.

The downturn reflects broader macroeconomic concerns, particularly in the US monetary policy outlook.

Despite this, market participation increased, with total crypto trading volume soaring 56.04% to $94.67 billion in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin remains stable, Ethereum edges higher

• Bitcoin (BTC): BTC traded at $95,858, up 0.12% from yesterday. The leading cryptocurrency recorded a daily low of $95,243 and a high of $97,032. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s market dominance increased slightly to 59.83%, indicating relative strength in the market.
  
• Ethereum (ETH): ETH saw a 2% gain, climbing to $2,712, with a 24-hour high of $2,848. Investors seem to be accumulating ETH ahead of potential network upgrades and broader market movements.
  
• XRP: Despite positive developments from Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin (RLUSD), which hit a 120 million token supply milestone, XRP's price fell 2% to $2.66. The token traded between $2.61 and $2.73 in the past 24 hours.
  
• Solana (SOL): The SOL price dropped 4.5% to $177.96, amid bearish whale activity and declining DEX trading volumes. Solana’s price action suggests waning investor confidence, leading to short-term selling pressure.

Top crypto gainers today

Source: CoinMarketCap

Sonic (S) – up 17%

• Price: $0.626
• Key Driver: Sonic’s total value locked (TVL) hit $426.66 million, signaling increasing market confidence.

Maker (MKR) – up 7%

• Price: $1,063
• Key Driver: A rise in futures open interest (OI) to $69.71 million boosted investor sentiment.

Berachain (BERA) – up 6%

• Price: $5.98
• Key Driver: A 23% surge in futures OI to $144.29 million drove bullish momentum.

With Bitcoin consolidating near $96K and altcoins seeing mixed action, traders remain cautious about short-term movements.

Macroeconomic concerns, regulatory developments, and institutional inflows will likely shape the market’s next move.

Will BTC break above $97K, or is a pullback looming? Stay tuned for more updates.

Other alt/meme coins like Reserve Rights, Sentivate, Serum, Siacoin, Skycoin, Stacks, Status, Steem, Stellar, Stepn, Storj, Stratis, Sui, SushiSwap, Swipe, Synthetix Network Token, and Terra Classic came under pressure due to the broader market effect and showing volatility in prices at the time of writing.