Bitcoin Price: 3 Reasons why it can’t surpass $90K

Bitcoin has been on a steady upward trend since reaching its weekly peak of $88,752 in March. (BTC) In the chart of the one-hour time frame, price formed lower highs as well as lower lows.

Bitcoin’s price is not able to rise above $88,000 as the week ends, which reduces the chances of a $90,000.000 retest by the end Q1.

What keeps Bitcoin at $90k or less?

The constant pressure on Bitcoin from investors who have held coins less than 155-days is a big reason why the price has been struggling. Glassnode’s “The Week On-chain” You can also read our blog about it. noted The current Bitcoin cycle is a “top heavy” Market where BTC investors purchased at higher price hold a substantial portion of Bitcoins’ supply. STH is the main group to experience the most significant price decline since Bitcoin’s 30% correction off its high.

Glassnode analysts said in the report.

“Volume of Short-Term Holder supply held in loss surging to a massive 3.4M BTC. This is the largest volume of STH supply in loss since July 2018.”

Bitcoin’s accumulation score is indicative of the pressure to sell that has been experienced by short-term Bitcoin holders.

Bitcoin’s trend accumulation score (a metric used to quantify selling pressure) remained lower than 0.1 after the BTC value dropped from $108,000 down to $93,000-$97,000. A score of less than 0.5 signifies distribution instead accumulation (selling) and a lower value indicates intense pressure to sell.

Bitcoin’s inability to surpass the $90k threshold may also be due to the tightening of the liquidity market. According to data, onchain transfer volume has dropped from $5.2 billion to $5.2 billion per day. This is a sharp 47% decrease from its peak when the cryptocurrency reached all-time heights. Similar, the number of addresses that are active has dropped by 18%. From 950,000 in Nov 2024, it is now 780,000.

Open interest (OI), the BTC derivatives market, was also measured at the same time. dropped The perpetual futures financing rates have also decreased by 24%, from $71.85 to $54.65 milliards.

This deleveraging and liquidity contraction—combined with only 2.5% of the total supply moving in profit during the correction—limits the market’s capacity to rally past $90k since there are insufficient buy orders to absorb sell orders.

Related: Bitcoin price prediction markets bet BTC won’t go higher than $138K in 2025

Bitcoin demand continues to decline

Glassnode’s data showed that during the current BTC bull market cycle, there is no new demand from buyers. The Cost Basis Distribution Heatmap (CBD) shows a concentration of supply at the higher price levels (between $100K and $108K), but the CBD Heatmap also indicates a lack of significant influxes at the lower price levels.

It is not just the lack of investment that has been a factor. The macroeconomic insecurity, which discourages new investors as shown by the shift to net capital flows when the STH 1-week-to-1-month cost base fell below the STH 1-month-3 months cost basis, also played a role.

Glassnode analysts have said that.

“The flip side of these observations is that the Long-Term Holder cohort still retains a substantial portion of the network wealth, holding almost 40% of invested value.”

These periods of accumulation may eventually lead to a tightening of the supply, and better conditions will be created for the new demand wave once the market has established a more positive trend.

Related: Would GameStop buying Bitcoin help BTC price hit $200K?

This article contains no investment recommendations or advice. Each investment or trading decision involves some risk. Readers should do their own research before making any decisions.