Bitcoin (BTC) Withdraws From $100k Price Point, But Experts Predict Return as Market Recovers

The crypto market recorded a temporal downtrend following weeks of consistent uptick which forced most of the leading assets into the overbought territory.

The crypto market took a downturn on Sunday as most of the leading assets recorded a price decline from their recent highs. This pullback comes after several weeks of a consistent uptick that forced many assets into the overbought territory.

Bitcoin (BTC), which recently traded as high as $99,646, withdrew to $95,500 on Sunday. Stellar Lumens (XLM) also declined to $0.44 from its monthly high of $0.63. Others affected by this pullback include Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Cardano (ADA), and Shiba Inu (ADA).

According to our market data, the total market capitalization declined by 2.4% within the period. This pullback also affected the futures market, with crypto-tracked futures recording a massive liquidation of $500 million in both longs and shorts.

Our analysis of the data from CNF discovered that $366 million of the recorded liquidations were in longs, while $127 million were in shorts. For the small altcoins and the futures tracking midcaps, more than $100 million were recorded in liquidation.

However, the market appears to have recovered in the early hours of Monday, as Bitcoin stages a bullish reversal into $98k while the broad market losses reduce to under 2%.

According to Jeff Mei, the COO of crypto exchange BTSE, Bitcoin could still return to $100k as key indicators suggest the large involvement of institutional investors.

Mei observed that funds would soon move into the Ethereum Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and Solana once its ETF gets approved. He also predicted that this bull run could continue into 2025.

“It’s clear that Bitcoin has been leading the market, a key indicator that much of the demand is driven by institutions buying ETFs. Hitting the $100K mark is very likely in the coming week. We also believe that institutions will start buying into the Ethereum ETFs soon and, hopefully, the Solana ones once they’re approved.”

“With the stock market making steady gains and the Trump transition team meeting with several crypto executives to discuss pro-crypto policies, it looks promising that this rally will continue into 2025.”

While analysts believe that the current position of the Bitcoin price and the $100k price point is just separated by an “air gap”, the “order book skew ratio” suggests otherwise. According to our analysts, this indicator measures the number of traders or investors on the ask side against those on the bid side.

Based on the reading, the three-day moving average of the 1% skew appears elevated. Fascinatingly, this has only happened thrice since 2022. What this means is that the “firing power” of the investors that drove the price from $66k to $99k has considerably reduced.

According to crypto prime broker FalconX, any slight negative news at this point could be catastrophic.

“As we near $100K, the skew approaches levels seen only three times since 2022. While this doesn’t threaten the medium-term rally, it suggests that the struggle to break above the $100K level could be intense.”