Bitcoin spent the week rallying on a US-Iran peace deal before giving most of it back by Friday.
The sell-off hit every major coin, while altcoins keep missing the late-cycle rally traders usually count on.
Bitcoin traded around $62,700 on Friday, down 1.9% in 24 hours and sitting at the bottom of a range it has held for almost two weeks.
The damage spread past bitcoin, with ether dropping 2.3% to $1,695, XRP and solana each falling 3.2%, and BNB shedding 2.7% as only tron held flat.
The trigger came from outside crypto, where global stocks slipped in holiday-thinned trading with US, Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese markets closed.
Brent crude fell to around $79 a barrel - down 9% on the week - as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz returned to normal under the signed US-Iran deal.
The peace deal that fueled this week's rally also pulled the rug from under it, calming oil, cooling stocks, and dragging bitcoin lower with them.
Chart watchers are zeroed in on one level: the $59,000 to $60,000 zone, where a break below those early-month lows would put $45,000 in play for some traders.
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Altcoins keep lagging bitcoin late in the cycle, even as bitcoin grabs the bulk of crypto inflows.
In past cycles, late-stage bull runs always lit up altcoins - the smaller, riskier tokens that ride bitcoin's wake.
Traders call it altseason, and this cycle it isn't showing up.
Michael Egorov, founder of Curve Finance, told CoinDesk the old playbook is broken.
Spot bitcoin ETFs got approved just before the 2024 halving - the every-four-years event that slows how fast new bitcoin gets created - pulling in a wave of big-money buyers that didn't exist in past cycles.
Almost all of that money is flowing into bitcoin alone, with the cash that used to chase altcoins going into memecoins instead - tokens with no real business or revenue behind them, per Egorov.
His advice to builders was blunt: don't count on an altseason for at least three more years, and build tokens that earn real money from real projects.
The week backs him up - outside of Hyperliquid's HYPE, up 13.2% even after Friday's drop, just about every other coin finished red.
New dogecoin ETFs are pulling in almost no money, while the cash that is moving keeps flowing into bitcoin.
Two things matter from here.
First, that $59,000 to $60,000 floor - a break opens the door to a deeper sell-off fast.
Second, the Iran nuclear talks, where JD Vance just said a 60-day clock has started on hammering out the details.
If those talks stall, oil prices spike again - and crypto goes with it.
Bitcoin keeps eating the flows while everything else waits.
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