Bitcoin staged a renewed advance toward $70,000 on Wednesday but once again failed to secure a breakout, retreating to around $68,300 in early Thursday trading after falling to an overnight low near $67,700 — a swing of nearly 5% from intraday high to low.

The rally marked the strongest effort to reclaim $70,000 since the Feb. 5 selloff, yet buyers were unable to sustain momentum above the key psychological threshold.

Under the surface, the session was defined by altcoin strength. Ethereum climbed 8.5%, Solana gained 6.9%, and Cardano surged 10.8%. Dogecoin advanced 8.3%. By comparison, Bitcoin rose 4.3%, one of the lighter gains among the top digital assets.

Such relative outperformance from higher-beta tokens often signals improving risk appetite, as traders rotate capital into more volatile assets when they believe the worst of the forced selling has passed.

“The wave of forced selling is starting to clear,” said Daniel Reis-Faria, CEO of ZeroStack. “Altcoins are once again leading bitcoin, which suggests rotation back into risk.”

The crypto move came amid a muted response to earnings from Nvidia. Although the chipmaker beat expectations, the rally faded quickly. Nasdaq-100 futures slipped 0.3% following the report, while Nvidia shares erased most of their post-earnings gains to trade only marginally higher.

Despite retaining its status as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, Nvidia highlighted concerns about overheating in segments of the artificial intelligence economy, cooling momentum in technology stocks that had been attempting a recovery.

The broader macro backdrop remains uncertain for crypto markets. Trading firm Wintermute noted that digital assets have tracked weakness in tech equities as capital rotates into defensive and tangible assets. Meanwhile, Matrixport cited stagnant stablecoin supply growth as a key headwind for bitcoin’s upside. On-chain analytics provider Glassnode expects broader liquidity conditions to improve no sooner than six months.

Near-term indicators offer tentative support for a bounce. Data from CryptoQuant shows selling pressure on Binance has moderated, strengthening the case for short-term stabilization. However, Bitrue warned that a decisive break below $60,000 could trigger a deeper slide toward the $50,000–$55,000 range, or even $47,000 if liquidation cascades intensify.

For now, bitcoin’s rejection near $70,000 underscores the gap between a tactical rebound and a still-fragile medium-term trend, leaving the market caught between improving momentum and lingering structural risks.