BTC below $113K ahead of Powell’s Jackson hole speech, MemeCore rallies 20%

Bitcoin continued trending lower throughout the day as the market embraced a risk-off sentiment.

The total cryptocurrency market cap slipped as liquidity drained from risk assets across both digital and traditional markets, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opening more than 0.5% lower.

Meanwhile, the crypto market cap retreated to $3.88 trillion — levels last seen at the start of the month — amid heavy liquidations and persistent outflows from US exchange-traded funds for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Altcoins were mostly in the red, with a handful of the top 100 altcoins managing to grab onto gains.

Why is Bitcoin going down?

Bitcoin fell below $113,000 as traders turned cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium. 

Investors fear Powell could signal a slower path to interest rate cuts, a scenario that has already unsettled risk markets.

The hesitation comes after fresh inflation data on August 12 showed consumer prices rising 2.7% year-over-year, well above the Fed’s 2% target.

That reading kept inflation sticky and lowered the odds of a September rate cut. 

According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the probability of a cut dropped to 82% this week from more than 94% just a week earlier, underscoring how quickly sentiment has shifted.

This recalibration has rippled through crypto markets. Bitcoin briefly touched $112,565 on Wednesday — its lowest level in two weeks — as traders positioned defensively. 

Exchange-traded funds tracking both Bitcoin and Ethereum added to the pressure, with US spot Bitcoin ETFs recording $523 million in outflows on Tuesday, more than quadruple Monday’s figure. 

Ether products fared no better, with losses swelling to $422 million from $200 million a day earlier.

Across three sessions, combined Bitcoin and Ether funds shed $1.3 billion, coinciding with steep corrections of 8.3% and 10.8%, respectively, since last Wednesday. 

The scale of outflows, while small compared to the record inflows earlier this year, highlights a clear turn in investor psychology. 

Retail sentiment has cooled sharply, and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell back into “Fear” territory at 44 after weeks of optimism.

Yet, corporations have continued to accumulate Bitcoin and Ether despite retail caution, but the selling pressure from ETFs has outweighed that support in the short term. 

For now, traders are watching Jackson Hole closely, with the prospect of delayed rate relief serving as the main headwind keeping Bitcoin under pressure.

Will Bitcoin go up?

Bitcoin’s dip below $113,000 underscored what Ryan Lee of Bitget called “rising nerves in the market,” with Powell’s Jackson Hole speech acting as the trigger for short bursts of fear-driven selling.

Lee argued that holding above $112,000 could become the base for the next advance, provided liquidity begins to return after Powell’s remarks.

CoinGlass data shows bids clustering around the $112,000 mark, a level already drawing interest from traders positioning for a potential rebound.

The heatmap highlights dense liquidation bands between $112,000 and $114,000, confirming it as the most contested zone over the past 24 hours. 

Large blocks of liquidations also appeared near $116,000, suggesting that if Bitcoin can reclaim ground above $114,000, the next upside test will likely meet resistance closer to $115,800–$116,000.

On the downside, the heatmap indicates another thick band of liquidation interest between $110,000 and $111,000. 

This aligns with Keith Alan of Material Indicators, who flagged $110,950, the 100-day simple moving average, as a potential support barrier. 

Should Bitcoin lose $112,000, the pressure could accelerate toward the $107,000–$110,000 range, where further liquidation levels are stacked.

For fellow analyst ZYN, the worst-case scenario for Bitcoin was a dip into the “$106K–$110K” range.

He argued that this area aligns with the long-term trendline that has carried Bitcoin’s bull market since late 2023, marking it as the natural place where the current cycle could reset.

The analyst projected that if Bitcoin revisits the trendline and holds, the market could be setting up for a new all-time high in Q4 2025.

In terms of price targets, the crypto community on X continued to throw out bullish projections

One such outlook came from analyst Lau, who argued that Bitcoin is following the “smart money cycle,” where manipulation gives way to accumulation before expansion. 

According to the analyst, the market is currently in the stage “where retail panics and whales gather,” framing the recent dip as positioning rather than collapse.

In Lau’s view, this cycle sets Bitcoin up for the next expansion phase, with price targets between $118,000 and $124,000

When writing, Bitcoin was hovering just over the $114,000 mark with no losses or gains on the daily time frame.

Altcoin market

In the last 24 hours, the altcoin market cap dipped 3% to $1.58 trillion.

Ethereum (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, rose 2.3% over the period, reaching $4.3k levels, while Solana (SOL) gained 3%.

Other major tokens like XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) saw losses between 1-2%.

MemeCore (M) led the highest gains among the top 100 altcoins with gains of 23% in the day, while OKB (OKB) and Conflux (CFX) followed with approximately 11% and 8% respectively.

Source: CoinMarketCap

MemeCore: MemeCore rallied today largely due to momentum from the MemeX Liquidity Festival, a community campaign designed to reward users for providing liquidity and trading activity on decentralised exchanges.

The token’s rally was further accelerated by a wave of short liquidations totalling over $870,000, triggering a short squeeze that pushed prices higher.

OKB: OKB's rally was primarily driven by a landmark token burn, the largest in its history, where approximately 65 million OKB were permanently removed from circulation, effectively cutting the total supply by over 50% and instituting a hard cap at 21 million tokens. 

Concurrently, OKX rolled out enhancements to its zkEVM-based Layer‑2 blockchain X Layer, which lowered gas fees, raised transaction throughput, and improved Ethereum compatibility, adding more utility to OKB as its native gas token.

Conflux: Conflux’s gains today mainly came after its price dropped into oversold territory, prompting traders to buy the dip.

At the same time, positive sentiment from a strategic partnership with Self Chain lifted confidence among institutional and enterprise investors.