Bitcoin, despite short-term rebound, 'US$100,000 wall'… Year-end burden expected to limit upside

Bitcoin (BTC) has shown a rebound after a recent sharp drop, but it is expected that breaking through US$100,000 will not be easy due to year-end supply-demand pressure and whale selling.

On the 25th (local time), according to CoinDesk, Paul Howard, head of trading at Wincent, said, "Recent whale selling and reduced liquidity triggered the liquidation of exchange-traded fund (ETF) arbitrage positions, which led to a flood of ETF sell volume," and "with the annual year-end accounting and reporting season overlapping, institutions tend to reduce positions, making it difficult for sentiment to recover quickly."

Howard said, "It seems unlikely that Bitcoin will recover to US$100,000 before the first quarter." However, he emphasized that the foundation to support value appreciation across digital assets over the next 12 months has already been laid.

Meanwhile, Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at Wintermute, assessed, "Although adjustments continued amid the deteriorating macro environment, positions have moved out of the over-leveraged zone, and the market has finally entered a stable sideways phase." He said, "Funding rates have returned to neutral-to-bearish territory, futures leverage has decreased significantly, and spot trading volume has improved," adding, "Now, a gradual recovery is more likely than a sharp rebound."