Bitcoin has been hovering somewhere between $96,000 and $99,000 for weeks now, and anxious holders are asking: when is the next rally?
Bitcoin first broke above the storied $100,000 mark on December 5, reaching a high of $108,000 on December 17 largely owing to President Trump’s re-election.
“Despite a constant stream of positive news, BTC ($95,818.82) feels meh, stubbornly bouncing around just under $100,000 for what feels like ages,” writes analyst Noelle Acheson in her newsletter, “Crypto Is Macro Now.”
There are a few culprits, Acheson says, “from PTSD left over from the 2022 crash, to memecoin and Strategic Bitcoin Reserve distractions, to a lack of crypto innovation.”
“All this feels like grasping for an explanation to help us understand our frustration, when the real reason is our own impatience,” she said.
That may be true, but the extended period of chop has some traders wondering when the next leg up is going to come – and where from.
Where else?
“Big new inflows,” writes Acheson.
“The institutions have not started allocating in a big way yet,” Acheson writes. “Sure, there are many large funds and renowned investors who have. But the institutional pool is vast, and so far, it’s largely still on the sidelines.”
Indeed, a wave of new ETFs could do exactly that.
From there, add a dash of retail investors’ fear-of-missing-out — “they’ll pile in after the institutional buyers have started to move the price” — and a heap of regulatory tailwinds.
There you have it: a recipe for a frothy spring season.
For now though, writes Acheson, we wait.
“And that’s fine. Soon, the sellers will be exhausted, and we’ll see what happens when demand picks up for an asset that has a verifiably limited supply.”
