Psychological barriers seem to exist in both dollar and BTC values, but this seems to be different for every coin. For instance, NEO has just broken out at the $5 mark.

I think the more popular a coin is, and if its value is over $1, people tend to look more at the dollar value. If it's measured in cents, people tend to look more at the BTC value. But even for popular coins people continue to look at the BTC price, like how ETH passed one major psychological barrier at 0.1 BTC. - @jarexx