Bitcoin's rally stalled just under $82,000 over the weekend and the coin has slipped back toward $80,000, even as Bybit derivatives data shows traders piling into leveraged long positions at some of the most aggressive levels the exchange has recorded. The pullback follows a week that included a failed Senate vote, a Federal Reserve rate hike, and a Bank of Japan rate increase — yet Real Vision founder Raoul Pal argues the rate backdrop actually favors bitcoin over the Nasdaq.
BTC Rejected Near $82,000
Bitcoin's climb toward $82,000 ran out of steam over the weekend. The token spiked to almost $82,000 on Saturday but was rejected there, and it now sits just above $80,000. Perhaps due to the escalation in the Middle East on Saturday evening, the asset has given back most of that spike.
The week began roughly, too. A cloture vote on the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate on Tuesday, and bitcoin slumped to a three-week low of $75,000. The Fed then raised its benchmark rate 25 basis points to a 3.75% to 4.00% range, its first hike since July 2023, and the Bank of Japan followed two days later with its own rate increase. Bitcoin still surged past $80,000 on Friday for the first time in two weeks before Saturday's rejection near $82,000. Its market capitalization has since eased to $1.61 trillion, with dominance over the rest of the market near 59%.
Alts Mixed as AVAX Bucks the Slide
Ether was rejected at $2,630 and now trades below $2,600, down 2.6% on the day. ZEC and XMR fared worse, dropping 8.2% to $1,443 and 8.6% to $523 respectively. Avalanche broke from the pattern, climbing more than 11% to above $9.6 even as the broader market cooled. The total crypto market cap has shed about $40 billion on the day, down to $2.740 trillion.
Bybit Traders Load Up on the Dip
Even as prices slipped, Bybit's taker buy/sell ratio — a gauge of aggressive buying against selling in perpetual futures — surged above 25, among the most aggressive bullish tilts the metric has registered; readings above 10 to 20 already count as extreme. It's not unprecedented: the ratio reached 24.26 in late September 2025 and peaked at 30.3 in January 2026. Each prior spike coincided with a pullback traders bet would reverse, but one-sided positioning has also historically preceded sharp swings when the crowd gets it wrong.
Pal Sees Bitcoin Outrunning the Nasdaq
Against that backdrop, Raoul Pal said in a six-post thread on X on September 18 that bitcoin has broken its downtrend against the Nasdaq 100 on weekly charts, two days after the rate hike. His argument rests on fiscal dominance — the idea that refinancing government debt at higher rates ultimately forces fresh liquidity into the system, an asset he views bitcoin as especially sensitive to. According to Bitcoin News: "Patience, as ever, is rewarded. Leverage never is. Don't F*** This Up."
Sources: CryptoPotato, Bitcoin News, Crypto Briefing
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