Bitcoin’s $100K puzzle: Institutional demand vs. deep liquidity traps

• Massive institutional capital flowing into BTC Spot ETFs, but bulls need to clear the $104.9k resistance first.
• BTC OTC sell-side liquidity was drying up fast, but there are more high leveraged liquidity levels below $101K.

From mid-April, Bitcoin [BTC] Spot ETFs have seen a steady stream of investments, taking up much of crypto inflows. Renewed interest from institutions made the inflow amount much higher than the outflow amount.

At the same time, the price of the king coin went up steadily, suggesting demand from ETFs helped support the price. This pattern showed that BTC exposure saw net inflows of almost $1 billion.

Source: CoinGlass

While higher ETF inflow supported higher prices, statistics indicated price dropoffs if the momentum fades.

The price of BTC may rise if the inflow kept growing. However, a decrease in activity could weaken BTC prices due to its optimistic trend.

Key levels and price analysis

Bitcoin’s charts showed strong gains followed by tightly compressed trading. Initially, price consolidated between $83K and $86K. When the price broke out of the range, consolidation occurred between $93K and $96K.

As a result of the pattern mentioned, the next upward move caused the price to consolidate between $101K and $105K.

Source: TradingView

Given these factors, it is prudent to wait for BTC to move outside the $101K and $105K range. If prices break above $105K, it might mean the market will continue to rise and could reach new records.

On the other hand, if the price goes below $101K, it could be a bearish trend that tries to reach the lower end of support.

On this level, BTC being ranged results in the fact that things are equal, and the direction it breaks out could show the first signs of its short-term movement.

BTC OTC and perpetual liquidity levels

On the sell side, the data showed that Bitcoin’s liquidity dropped significantly on all types of platforms since achieving its maximum.

With the number of announced sales decreasing fast, it seemed that liquid supply of Bitcoin was reducing quickly.

Source: X

A lack of Bitcoins on the market could, in fact, lead to a surge in pricing, and this could happen in 2025 as long as demand does not fall.

Meanwhile, the amount of fresh liquidation across BTC perpetual contracts pointed out several liquidation points for positions with less leverage, up to the $101,000 level.

There were some high leverage longs at $99,459, $98,669, medium leverage longs at $100,522, and $100,033.

When it comes to short positions, low leverage liquidations were evident at and above the current price, for instance at $105,764 but also at $105,498.

Source: TradingView

It pointed out that there were “more high leveraged liquidity levels found below $101K.” All in all, this pointed to the supply of BTC being squeezed, which could cause an increase in prices.

Even so, if Bitcoin prices fall toward the major liquidation levels below $101,000, much selling may result, causing the price to fall even more before any rise due to a supply shock can happen.