Bitcoin Price Crashes Below $100K as DeepSeek Causes Waves In the Industry: Can Bulls Rebound?

Highlights:

• Bitcoin price drops 5% to $99,320 following waning crypto sentiment.
• The drop comes as DeepSeek, a new AI-driven cryptocurrency, is causing waves across the crypto ecosystem.
• Arthur Hayes has, however, projected that BTC could hit $250K, driven by a potential resumption of monetary easing policies.

The crypto market kicked off the week with a bearish bias, as Bitcoin’s price dropped 5% to $99,320 as of Jan 27. Other significant cryptos, like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana, wobbled on Monday by 7% and 11%, respectively, suggesting waning bullish sentiment. 

The recent drop follows Chinese startup DeepSeek, a new AI-driven cryptocurrency causing waves across the crypto ecosystem. The project combines the immense potential of artificial intelligence with decentralized finance. It uses blockchain technology to enable innovative solutions. DeepSeek’s release is already being compared to ChatGPT. 

🚨BREAKING: DeepSeek crash all crypto markets.#DeepSeek pic.twitter.com/tKDYrdlnJb

— Crypto Beast (@cryptobeastreal) January 27, 2025

AI Coin Market Cap Drops by 21%

According to CoinGecko, the AI agents category was among the hardest hit by the latest market slide, with market capitalization plummeting 21% over the past 24 hours. Among AI agent coins, Virtuals protocol took the lead with losses of up to 20%, followed by ai16z with a 22% drop, and aixbit by Virtuals with a steep 21% fall. 

Meanwhile, the pioneering cryptocurrency (BTC) has been trading sideways around $100K-$107K, although there have been notable fluctuations. Just hours before Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, BTC hit an ATH of $109K. 

This was primarily driven by market optimism about Trump’s pro-crypto policies and his signing of a Bitcoin Reserve Order in his first 100 days in office. However, the price has cooled off and even plunged below the $100K mark as of the time of writing. 

Elsewhere, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes predicted more downsides in the BTC market. Taking to the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, Hayes has called for a mini-financial crisis of $70-$75K BTC correction. 

Reversing the order of my tryptic essay series.

The Ugly will be published tomorrow morning. I am calling for a $70k to $75k correction in $BTC, a mini financial crisis, and a resumption of money printing that will send us to $250k by the end of the year. pic.twitter.com/wohvbKkXOf

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) January 27, 2025

On the other hand, Hayes has notably projected a dramatic rebound for Bitcoin, reaching a new ATH at $250,000 this year, driven by a potential resumption of monetary easing policies.

Bitcoin Price Outlook – Can the Bulls Rebound Above the $100K Mark?

A zoomed-out view of the BTC/USD 1-day chart shows a gloomy landscape, painting the bigger picture bearish. The altcoin has been trading sideways since Jan 16, pushing it into a consolidation channel. 

Today, BTC plunged below the channel’s lower trendline. However, the bulls quickly established support at $98,894, aligning with the 50-day MA and defending against further losses. Meanwhile, the consolidation may act as an accumulation period before the bulls initiate a strong upward leg. 

Meanwhile, the $100K and $106K levels may further surface as the key resistances should the $98,500 level hold. However, a strong bullish spike may take the price to reclaim the 109K ATH or even higher. Moreover, if the market quickly turns south, the BTC/USD price may drop to $98,900. Should this support fail to contain the sell-off, traders may see a further rollback to $94,430 and, critically, $90,000. 

The technical outlook suggests that Bitcoin is likely to retest the $99,000–$100,000 range, possibly reaching $106K if the bulls gain momentum. However, Coinglass data suggest that the recent market plunge resulted in crypto traders liquidating over $850 million on exchanges over the last 24 hours, primarily affecting long positions.

However, a liquidation spike may occur to clear leveraged positions before the price establishes itself for higher levels.