Consolidation means an asset is neither continuing nor reversing a larger price movement. Instead it's trading in a very narrow band, leaving no room for trading opportunities.

For example, say bitcoin shoots up from $8000 to $10000 over 2 hours. Instead of continuing up to $11,000, or dropping back down to $9,000, it instead continues to trade between $10,050 and $9,950 for the rest of the day. In that scenario bitcoin has consolidated.

INSERT IMAGE OF CONSOLIDATION