Bitcoin (BTC) has been caught in a volatile dance, oscillating between $61,000 and $59,900 over the past 24 hours. This sideways movement reflects a market in search of direction, with few catalysts strong enough to push the digital asset decisively in either direction.

A brief spike in BTC’s price occurred late Wednesday following revelations that U.S. job growth for the 12-month period ending in March 2024 was significantly lower—by 818,000 jobs—than previously reported. This news was a temporary lifeline, but it wasn’t enough to sustain Bitcoin’s upward momentum.

Adding to the market’s intrigue, reports surfaced suggesting that Robert Kennedy Jr. might soon exit the 2024 presidential race and throw his support behind Republican Donald Trump. Trump, who has positioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate, could potentially influence market sentiment if these reports prove accurate. Polymarket bettors have placed a nearly 94% probability on this development, marking a stark shift from earlier in the week.

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However, Bitcoin’s brief price rally was short-lived. Profit-taking by traders quickly reversed the gains, pushing BTC down to as low as $59,900. The digital currency managed a slight recovery during Asian trading hours on Thursday, climbing back above $60,800, which in turn led to modest gains across the broader crypto market.

“The crypto market yet again failed to breach the $2.15 trillion cap, retreating by 2.3% to $2.1 trillion—nearly back to where it stood on Tuesday,” observed Alex Kuptsikevich of FxPro in a market note. He added, “From a technical standpoint, Bitcoin faced downward pressure after another unsuccessful attempt to break its 50-day moving average, a range it’s been trapped in for the past six days.”

Kuptsikevich also noted a shift in institutional interest towards other assets like gold, which hit record highs on Tuesday amid a weakening U.S. dollar and a flight to safety by risk-averse investors.

Meanwhile, inflows into U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) remained sluggish, with only $39 million in net flows on Wednesday. This lack of fresh demand from professional investors is exerting bearish pressure on BTC, contributing to its recent struggles.

In the altcoin market, several major tokens saw modest gains. Ethereum’s ether (ETH), Solana’s SOL, and Binance Smart Chain’s BNB each rose by as much as 2%. On the other hand, dogecoin (DOGE) and XRP showed little change, while Tron’s TRX fell by 4.5% following a rally on Wednesday that was driven by the launch of a new memecoin generator.

The broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which tracks the 20 largest tokens by market capitalization, posted a 1.54% increase.

Notably, Polygon’s MATIC surged by 12%, buoyed by anticipation surrounding its upcoming token migration. This transition will convert the existing MATIC token into POL—a unified token that will operate across all of Polygon’s blockchains. Chainlink’s LINK also saw a significant 15% rise as its data feeds were integrated into Aave’s new release on the zkSync blockchain, signaling increased demand for the token.

As the market remains in flux, Bitcoin’s near-term trajectory is uncertain, with key technical indicators and external developments continuing to shape its path.