After the cryptocurrency market experienced a major collapse on Monday, breaking below $92,000, Bitcoin briefly surged above the $100,000 mark late Friday night following the release of mixed US non-farm payroll data. However, with Trump threatening to impose tariffs on more countries next week, it plummeted 4.5% to a low of $95,601 before settling at $96,213 at the time of writing, down about 0.6% in the past 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) also surged and then plunged last night, breaking above $2,797 before plummeting 8.4% to $2,562. At the time of writing, it has recovered to $2,629, down more than 3% in the past 24 hours.

Placeholder Partner: This cycle has not yet reached its peak, but is a mid-bull market correction

Regarding the major sell-off in the cryptocurrency market this week, many community investors believe the bull market may have peaked.

However, Chris Burniske, a partner at the crypto investment firm Placeholder, wrote in a post on X platform today (8th) that he believes "this is not a sign of the cycle's peak, but rather a mid-bull market correction", and he remains confident in the market's future.

To me, this feels more like the April, May, June 2021 correction, when various tokens plummeted 50-80%, many said it was over, the top-callers gloated, and then the market went on to see a massive rally in the second half of 2021.

Further reading: Is the Bitcoin bull market still on? Analyst: Be cautious of a second bottom before Trump-Mexico negotiations, EU tariffs

Analyst: The current cycle is still in the early stages of the bull market, and venture capital funds have not yet entered the market in a big way

According to a report by Blockworks, Empire analyst Jason Yanowitz also stated that if you don't consider Strategy's (formerly MicroStrategy) Bitcoin hoarding, "the current cycle is still in the early stages".

Yanowitz believes that Strategy's support has been propping up Bitcoin's current price, and if Michael Saylor's company had not spent over $20 billion buying Bitcoin from late last year to this year, the BTC price would be much lower.

However, he pointed out that there is still not enough venture capital money entering the market in a big way, and it remains in a "very PvP (player-versus-player)" state, while venture capital money will be the key metric for the official arrival of the Altcoin season.

Are there multiple bullish signals for ETH?

On the other hand, Ethereum, which is seen as the touchstone for Altcoins, has still not been able to break through the $4,878 historical high of the previous bull market, and has instead been hovering below $2,700 due to a series of controversies. This cycle has not yet been able to lead the full-blown Altcoin season along with Bitcoin.

However, a CoinDesk article points out that ETH's price action is similar to when it bottomed in August last year, suggesting a new uptrend may be imminent.

On Monday, ETH plummeted to nearly $2,000 before rebounding to $2,700, marking its largest single-day swing since September 2021. The violent two-way volatility has led to a surge in trading volume on exchanges, reaching the highest level since August.

The surge in trading volume suggests that selling pressure may have peaked in the early part of this week, leading to a reduction in the number of potential sellers in the market. This could help stabilize prices and lay the foundation for a rebound.

On August 5 last year, ETH saw two-way volatility driven by high trading volume, dropping to around $2,100, but stabilized in the $2,200 to $2,800 range over the following weeks, before gaining new upward momentum and surging to $4,100 by the end of the year.

Jake Ostrovskis, an over-the-counter trader at Wintermute, also noted that he has observed strong off-exchange demand for ETH, which is particularly noteworthy given the widespread discussion of a certain fund's liquidation due to the weekend volatility.

Other bullish signals include the US Ethereum spot ETF seeing net inflows of $420 million this week, accounting for nearly 13% of the $3.18 billion in total inflows since its launch.