The so-called Fish-to-Shark cohort added 110,000 BTC over the past 30 days, according to Glassnode.
Massive Coinbase News! Bitcoin Rips to $96,750! Football.Fun TGE Interview with Founder!
Bitcoin (BTC) consolidated around $95,000 toward Wednesday’s Wall Street open as analysis dismissed macroeconomic threats.
While geopolitical risks and US trade policy uncertainty remain in focus, traders appeared more influenced by liquidity conditions and relative asset performance, with Bitcoin lagging gold and equities before reclaiming $95,000.
Key points:
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Bitcoin prepares its next move after a key daily close above the 2025 yearly open.
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Gold and stocks at all-time highs contrast the volatility risk from geopolitical tensions and the US Supreme Court tariff ruling.
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BTC price action faces multiple hurdles, with $100,000 a turning point.
Bitcoin analysis: Macro risk “already priced in”
Data from TradingView showed cooler BTC price action returning after a run to two-month highs near $96,500.
These came as geopolitical tensions involving the US increased, including fresh potential intervention in Venezuela and Iran, as well as concerns over Greenland.
At the same time, the spat between the government and Federal Reserve took on an increasingly public character, with central banks worldwide rallying in support of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
S&P 500 futures hit fresh record highs in advance of Tuesday’s US session, while gold built on existing records on the day, reaching $4,639 per ounce.
Among crypto market participants, the anticipation of Bitcoin finally catching up with the global asset bull run was noticeably high.
“Bitcoin has been lagging behind the equity market and precious metal rally, but it has finally pushed through the $95k level that capped rallies since November,” trading resource QCP Capital wrote in its latest “Asia Color” market update.
QCP added another risk-asset impetus to the mix in the form of Fed economic liquidity injections.
“With potentially further fiat currency debasement in the US, which has been driving precious metals higher, the relative cheapness of Bitcoin relative to precious metals at this point may spur a rotation to digital assets,” it continued.
QCP argued that despite current implied risks to market stability, traders were already one step ahead. Even President Donald Trump’s international trade tariffs being ruled illegal — with alleged multitrillion-dollar implications — should not disrupt the overall trend.
“Risks remain, notably the pending Supreme Court decision on tariffs and any escalation in Venezuela or Iran,” the update added.
“For now, the market continues to move higher in the face of these risks, which makes us believe this is already priced in. In the absence of a new unknown unknown, any further escalations should be a buy-the-dip opportunity.”
BTC price faces threat of “liquidity run”
Others also found new reasons for optimism, among them Charles Edwards, founder of quantitative Bitcoin and digital asset fund Capriole Investments.
Related: Bitcoin loses to gold as debasement trade with BTC at 2-year lows: Analysis
“Strong Bitcoin move! Bitcoin just has its first promising technical move in a while,” he told X followers.
Edwards flagged a daily close above the 2025 yearly open level near $93,500 — Bitcoin’s first since Jan. 6.
“Opens up good odds of trend to $108K from here,” he added.
“Also need to see this weekly close above $93.5K to confirm the downside fakeout (bullish). Now would be a great time to turn this ship around!”
Trader Jelle spied what he called a “major” breakout from a descending triangle pattern in place since mid-November.
As Cointelegraph reported, some perspectives argued that this pattern was a relief bounce within a broader downtrend. Trader Roman, who predicted that BTC/USD would target $76,000 once downside reappeared, remained bearish.
“This is text book bearish price action: volume going up – price going down followed by volume going down – price going up/sideways,” he wrote about the weekly chart.
“Maybe we retest 100k area but this is nothing to get excited about. Next time large volume comes in, it’ll likely be a move lower.”
Trader CrypNeuvo, meanwhile, advised caution ahead of a potential resistance battle with Bitcoin’s 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) at $97,650.
“This could be a liquidity run towards the 1W50EMA where price could be rejected from,” he warned about the latest gains.
“Breaking above $100k (4% higher) is my invalidation to this idea.”
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
The Bitcoin price surged through the $96,000 level this afternoon, pushing decisively above a key resistance zone and signaling a renewed wave of bullish momentum after weeks of choppy, range-bound trading.
At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is trading around $96,000 up roughly 4.4% over the past 24 hours, according to market data.
The breakout marks a clear move beyond the upper boundary of January’s consolidation range. Bitcoin price is now hovering near its weekly highs, sitting approximately 5% above its seven-day low near $91,700, as buyers regain control of short-term market structure.
All this is happening as the US Senate Agriculture Committee has delayed its key markup of the Digital Asset Market Structure CLARITY Act until late January. The Senate’s Banking Committee markup is still scheduled for January 15.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman announced a timeline for advancing crypto market structure legislation, with legislative text set for release by the close of business on Wednesday, January 21, and a committee markup scheduled for Tuesday, January 27, at 3 p.m.
Boozman said the schedule is designed to ensure transparency and thorough review while providing regulatory clarity for crypto markets and supporting consumer protection and U.S. innovation.
The delay signals that Senate leaders may lack the votes to advance the bill amid disagreements over stablecoin rewards, DeFi oversight, and SEC–CFTC authority.
Although the House passed its version in mid-2025, the bill cannot move forward unless both Senate committees approve it.
Despite this, Bitcoin trading activity is rallying alongside the price rally, with 24-hour volume climbing to roughly $55 billion, reflecting renewed participation as price accelerated higher.
Bitcoin’s total market capitalization has risen to approximately $1.92 trillion, reinforcing its dominance within the digital asset market. Circulating supply currently stands at just under 19.98 million BTC, inching closer to the protocol’s fixed 21 million coin cap.
Strategy ($MSTR) stock soars
Shares of Strategy (MSTR) jumped sharply today as well, closing at $172.99 USD with a 6.63% gain today and extending strength in after-hours trading up to $177.00, up +2 after hours, as investors continue to price in the company’s high-risk, bitcoin-linked strategy.
On January 12, Strategy announced they added 13,627 bitcoin for $1.25 billion, lifting its total holdings to 687,410 BTC.
The purchases were made between January 5 and January 11 and funded through the company’s at-the-market offering program, which included sales of Class A common stock (MSTR) and its 10.00% Series A perpetual preferred stock, Stretch (STRC).
Bitcoin price outlook
Tuesday’s surge follows several failed breakout attempts over the last couple of months, when bitcoin repeatedly tested resistance near the mid-$94,000 range before pulling back.
For much of the past month, price action remained compressed between roughly $85,000 and $94,000, prompting analysts to warn that bulls needed a decisive move higher to reassert control. That move now appears to be underway.
If the bitcoin price can sustain acceptance above $96,000, the next major resistance zones sit between $98,000 and $104,000, levels that previously capped upside momentum. A failure to hold current levels, however, could see price retrace toward former resistance turned potential support.
The breakout arrives as investors continue to weigh inflation trends, interest-rate expectations, and escalating political uncertainty tied to U.S. monetary policy.
On the political side, the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The investigation is intensifying a months‑long feud between the White House and the U.S. central bank
According to Powell, the DOJ served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas and threatened a criminal indictment tied to his June 2025 testimony about a $2.5 billion plus renovation of Fed office buildings.
In recent months, the bitcoin price has increasingly traded in response to macro narratives, with many participants viewing it as a hedge against policy instability and long-term currency debasement.
At the time of publication, the bitcoin price is near $96,000.
Bitcoin long-term holders showed early capitulation as LTH SOPR dipped below 1.0, signaling some six-month-plus holders sold at a loss.
Bitcoin (BTC) is showing early signs of strain among long-term holders as the LTH SOPR (Spent Output Profit Ratio) recently fell below 1.0, signaling that some holders are starting to sell at a loss.
While isolated, this move reflects growing uncertainty in the market as BTC trades near $92,000 amid mixed technical signals.
This development is significant because those holding BTC for more than six months have historically provided stability during price corrections. Their tentative selling could hint at short-term weakness or a shift in sentiment following months of accumulation.
Early LTH Capitulation and Market Reactions
The Long-Term Holder SOPR measures whether BTC moved on-chain is being sold at a profit or loss. A value above 1.0 indicates profit-taking, while a drop below 1.0 signals capitulation, where holders sell at a loss.
According to analysis shared on January 13 by market watcher Darkfost, the metric for Bitcoin held for more than six months briefly slipped under this threshold. This behavior, they said, is typically associated with bear market phases and points to selling pressure from “younger” long-term holders who bought within the last 9 months and are now in the red.
This development is happening alongside a notable reduction in positions by large investors. As previously reported, addresses holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC have parted with 220,000 BTC over the past year, the fastest rate of decline since early 2023.
While the 30-day average LTH SOPR remains positive at 1.18, it sits well below the annual average near 2.0, reflecting an overall drop in realized profits.
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Diverging Signals and Market Outlook
The market now presents a clash of narratives. The LTH SOPR hints at strain, but other analysts are pointing to potentially constructive technical patterns. Chartist Egrag Crypto highlighted a “hidden bullish divergence” on Bitcoin’s weekly chart, where price forms higher lows while the RSI momentum indicator makes lower lows, which can precede trend continuation.
Furthermore, the Sell-Side Risk Ratio, a measure of the scale of profits and losses being realized, has returned to levels last seen in October 2023, implying distribution is happening with less conviction.
Looking ahead, the path for BTC appears contingent on a clear break from its current range. Over the past week, it has traded between roughly $90,000 and $92,400, showing modest volatility. In the last 24 hours, the price rose 1.7% to around $92,200, with short-term holders nearing profitability, as noted by investor CW.
Meanwhile, analysts suggest that reclaiming the $92,000–$94,000 zone could trigger renewed buying, but repeated resistance attempts, potentially the eighth or ninth in recent weeks, per Ted Pillows, may exhaust momentum.
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- Miner active in the days of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, says expert.
- Two early “Bitcoin whales” moved coins worth $181 million late last year.
- VanEck predicts big Bitcoin price rises by 2050.
A miner who was active in the early days of crypto has moved over $181 million worth of Bitcoin.
The miner was active in the “Satoshi era,” Julio Moreno of the blockchain analysis provider CryptoQuant wrote on X. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin. Nakamoto authored the Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and launched the Bitcoin network the following year – before disappearing without a trace in 2010.
“[This is] the first time this has happened since November 2024, when Bitcoin was at around $91,000,” Moreno said. “Historically, Satoshi-era miners move their Bitcoin at key inflection points.”
The move comes a month after two so-called Bitcoin whales who had not touched their wallets since 2011 and 2012 moved their entire balances to unknown wallets.
Whales make moves
The crypto transaction monitoring platform Whale Alert noted on December 5 that one of the wallets had sat dormant for over 13 years. The other had been inactive for 14 years.
The latest transaction has generated much speculation online, with some X users commenting that Bitcoin whales tend to sell their coins when they think markets are rallying.
Sani, the founder of the Bitcoin transaction analysis site TimechainIndex, took to X to post blockchain data showing that a miner with funds in 40 Pay-to-Public-Key wallets had sent $181 million worth of Bitcoin to Coinbase crypto exchange wallets.
Pay-to-Public-Key wallets were popular in the early days of Bitcoin, but have since become largely obsolete, with modern users favoring more private alternatives.
“A miner just sold 2,000 Bitcoin from block rewards dormant since 2010,” Sani wrote.
Bullish predictions
Bitcoin prices have held steady just above $90,000 for most of the weekend, despite bullish predictions from the investment firm heavyweight VanEck.
VanEck last week said Bitcoin prices could reach the $2.9 million mark by 2050.
The company said big business and government adoption would likely spur Bitcoin growth in the years ahead.
It also outlined a “bull case scenario” that could see Bitcoin prices rise to a whopping $53.4 million.
“In a hyper-Bitcoinisation scenario where Bitcoin captures 20% of international trade and 10% of domestic GDP, the implied value per coin could reach $53.4 million,” wrote researchers Matthew Sigel and Patrick Bush.
Sigel and Bush explained that this scenario “requires Bitcoin to achieve parity with or surpass gold as a primary global reserve asset, constituting nearly 30% of world financial assets.”
In November, Galaxy Digital said Bitcoin was maturing and warned that the days of traders making “1,000x, 100x, or even possibly 10x gains” were over.
Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.
The Bitcoin (BTC) network mining difficulty, the relative computing challenge of adding a new block to the decentralized blockchain ledger, fell slightly to 146.4 trillion on Thursday, in the first difficulty adjustment of 2026.
“The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is estimated to take place on Jan 22, 2026, 04:08:12 AM UTC, increasing the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 146.47 T to 148.20 T,” according to CoinWarz.
Average block times are 9.88 minutes at the time of this writing, slightly below the 10-minute target, which means the next difficulty adjustment will increase slightly to align better with the target block time.
Mining difficulty reached new all-time highs in 2025, with the final adjustment of the year slightly increasing the difficulty level. However, even with the slight increase, difficulty remained well below the all-time high of 155.9 trillion recorded in November.
The rising difficulty means increased competition to mine blocks on the network, presenting more challenges to the mining industry, which suffered from macroeconomic, regulatory, and financial headwinds in 2025.
Related: Bitcoin mining’s 2026 reckoning: AI pivots, margin pressure and a fight to survive
2025 was the “harshest margin environment” on record for Bitcoin miners
Bitcoin miners experienced one of the toughest profitability environments on record, as profit margins eroded due to the April 2024 halving, which slashed the block subsidy by 50% and macroeconomic developments.
The crypto market downturn, which began in November, placed additional pressure on Miners and mining companies.
Miner hash price, a critical metric for miner profitability, which tracks expected revenue per unit of computing power expended to mine blocks, fell below breakeven levels in November 2025.
$40 per petahash-second per day is the level at which miners must decide whether to turn their rigs off or continue mining blocks. In November, this metric dropped below $35 — a multi-year low.
The tariffs enacted by US President Donald Trump also strained Bitcoin miners, creating fears of supply chain shortages.
A sharp crypto market downturn, sparked by a flash crash in October, discounted BTC prices by over 30% in November, when BTC hit a low just north of $80,000.
Although Bitcoin prices have rallied since that time, they are still far below the all-time high of over $125,000 reached in October.
Magazine: Bitcoin mining industry ‘going to be dead in 2 years’: Bit Digital CEO
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
Bitcoin enters the weekend in a quiet, range-bound mode, with support around $90,500–$88,200 holding firm. While price action remains subdued for now, key resistance levels near $94,100–$107,500 will likely dictate the market’s next major move. Whether BTC resumes its upward trajectory or tests deeper support, the coming week could provide the confirmation the market has been waiting for.
Expect Slower Bitcoin Market Moves
According to Kamile Uray, the market has entered the weekend, a period typically characterized by slow and subdued price action. The key support region between $90,588 and $88,280 has not yet formed a clear bottom, but it continues to prevent a sharper decline.
Related Reading
On the upside, a daily close above the $94,130 resistance would signal that bullish momentum is resuming. If this level is cleared, the next key resistance to watch is in the $98,200–$107,500 range. The $107,500 mark is particularly significant, as a daily close above it would represent the first higher high relative to the last downward wave on the daily chart, potentially opening the door for further upward continuation.
Should the market face deeper declines, there are multiple support zones to monitor: $86,398, $83,822, and $82,477. As long as BTC holds above $82,477, any pullbacks are likely to be considered retests of previous breakouts, keeping the broader bullish scenario intact.
If BTC closes below $82,477, it could trigger a continuation of the downtrend, possibly testing the $74,496–$71,237 zone, which represents a strong support area. Once a clear reversal is confirmed from this region, an upward move targeting the downtrend line could follow, offering a potential opportunity for traders to re-enter the market.
Weekend Choppiness Expected As Volume Remains Light
In a more recent update by Lennaert Snyder on X, Bitcoin has entered its weekend liquidity phase. As usual, trading activity is expected to be muted due to weak weekend volume. Looking ahead to next week, Snyder noted that the best-case scenario would be a break above the monthly open in the next weekly candle.
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Snyder is monitoring key triggers for quality trades. Historically, Sunday “scam-pumps” have provided opportunities to execute short trades near liquidity zones. Currently, the $87,600 monthly open is viewed as the main target for potential downside.
A diagonal line drawn on the chart highlights buy-side liquidity from shorts, which could be swept before a market structure break (MSB) forms, allowing shorts to be executed. If Bitcoin climbs above the current weekly high near $94,700, Snyder notes that the setup would simply wait for the next MSB to enter shorts again.
Another key resistance to watch next week is around $96,500. A clean break above this level would invalidate the bearish thesis targeting the monthly open, signaling that upward momentum could dominate.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com
Nexo has launched a zero-interest crypto lending product that allows Bitcoin and Ether holders to borrow against their assets through fixed-term loans.
According to a company announcement, the product, called Zero-interest Credit, offers fixed-term loans for users who hold Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH (ETH), with repayment conditions set in advance. Loans are settled at maturity and can be repaid using either stablecoins or collateral, depending on market conditions.
The offering expands a structured lending model that had previously been available only through Nexo’s private and OTC channels, where it facilitated more than $140 million in borrowing during 2025, according to the company.
Borrowers choose the loan size and duration up front, with terms that prevent liquidation before maturity and define the repayment range. At the end of the term, loans can be settled using either stablecoins or collateral, with the option to renew under new terms.
Nexo is a crypto financial services company founded in 2018 that offers crypto-backed loans, trading and savings services to users across 150 jurisdictions.
In April 2025, the company said that it would reenter the US market after withdrawing in late 2022 and settling a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $45 million in early 2023.
Related: Babylon receives $15M from a16z Crypto to expand Bitcoin-native lending
Defi lending grows in 2025
Crypto lending has evolved significantly since 2022, when companies such as Celsius and BlockFi were widely blamed for amplifying market contagion and deepening the fallout from the FTX collapse.
In 2025, centralized lenders including Nexo, Ledn, Xapo Bank and Coinbase expanded their crypto lending offerings under more conservative, fully collateralized structures, while decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols also recorded strong growth.
According to DefiLlama data, DeFi lending products grew from about $48.15 billion in total value locked (TVL) on Jan. 1, 2025, to a peak of $91.98 billion on Oct. 7, 2025.
Although the market trended lower following the Oct. 10 crypto liquidation event, activity stabilized in November and total value locked (TVL) currently stands at around $66 billion.
The DeFi lending market is led by Aave, with more than $22 billion in outstanding loans backed by over $55 billion in deposited assets, according to DefiLlama data.
Morpho ranks second, supporting roughly $3.6 billion in outstanding loans backed by about $10 billion in supplied liquidity.
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