Here’s what’s stopping Bitcoin’s price from surging past $82K on the charts

Bitcoin’s [BTC] price may have briefly surged past $82,000 a few weeks ago. However, it has since failed to surpass this level. Instead, it has been trading within a sideways range between $76,000 and $82,000.

This is happening despite the presence of spot demand. Here’s why BTC is stuck in this range and whether it can decisively break above $82K.

Bitcoin’s demand vs. heavy supply cluster

The spot demand for Bitcoin is coming from strong ETF inflows and large investors. For instance, the U.S Spot Bitcoin ETFs posted the strongest three-week stretch of 2026 after last week’s $986 million. This took the total net inflows to $3.80 billion.

Furthermore, Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive purchased 1,375 BTC worth $105 million. They could increase this position to 20K BTC before the end of the year.

The derivatives market also contributed to BTC’s recovery as Binance’s Open Interest hit a six-month peak of $10 billion.

However, buyers and sellers have been battling for control in the $76K-$82K range, which is one of the strongest supply zones. This level is a key demand zone, with 35% of BTC’s supply bought at this level or higher.

This heavy supply also came from the weekly average exchange net inflows, which increased by more than 593 BTC. Thus, Binance’s BTC reserves have remained high, roughly 685K–687K BTC, indicating that the spot demand may be relatively low.

Moreover, the unrealized profits of short-term whales hit a record $9 billion, from a drawdown of about $5 billion one month ago. This increases the risk of a sell-off due to profit-taking.

Still, bulls and bears are yet to settle scores and confirm a price breakout.

Analyzing Bitcoin’s liquidity clusters

Looking at the liquidity, there seemed to be a massive cluster leveraged to the upside at press time. It was five times larger than the cluster sitting below $60,000.

Clearing this upside liquidity could trigger a short squeeze, helping BTC stay above $82K. This move might be likely because the larger liquidity cluster was closer to price compared to the one below.

Is BTC’s bottom in?

Finally, the technical outlook reinforced Bitcoin’s strength on the charts. Every time BTC had two consecutive red 6-month candles, its market structure flipped bullish.

At the time of writing, the crypto was forming a bullish candle. This suggested that the second half of the year could close green.

Since history does not always repeat but rhymes, the price may even surpass the ATH of $126K.

Final Summary

• Derivative traders, large investors, and institutional inflows in the form of Spot BTC ETFs have driven Bitcoin’s demand.
• BTC’s price action hinted at a potential bottom, but heavy supply above $82K could cap the uptrend.