Altcoins rally across the board as bitcoin consolidates near $84,000

Bitcoin is consolidating, trading at $84,342 on Friday and unchanged since midnight UTC, while almost everything else in the market is climbing, with 93 of the 100 CoinDesk 100 constituents higher over the past 24 hours and the CoinDesk 80 up 4.7% against the CoinDesk 5's 1.0%.

The rotation follows the pattern of previous cycles, in which capital moves into more speculative bets once bitcoin has run hard and stalled, with the cost of holding a long position through elevated funding pushing traders to rotate.

Bitcoin has climbed from below $63,000 in August to almost $87,000 on Tuesday and has gone sideways since, and altcoins are benefitting as a result, CoinMarketCap's altcoin season index reading 56 out of 100 against 45 a week ago and 38 a month ago, its highest in more than three months.

Chainlink , internet computer (ICP) and bittensor (TAO) drove the CoinDesk Computing Index (CPUS) 9.5% higher over 24 hours, with the DeFi Select Index (DFX) up 8.7%, both more than three times the blended benchmark's 2.5%.