Bitcoin briefly falls below $95,000, triggers liquidations – Should you worry?
Here's how sell-off by large players and Google's quantum update dented market sentiment.
- BTC dropped to $94K amid quantum concerns and profit-taking.
- Will the king coin rebound above $100K?
On Monday, the 9th of December, Bitcoin [BTC] dropped to $94.1K, which market watchers linked to increased profit-taking and security concerns following Google’s quantum update.
Profits and quantum concerns
According to the crypto trading firm QCP Capital, large options players booked profit as BTC hit $100K and rolled the gains to March 2025 call options (bullish bets) targeting $130K-$150K.
“Just today, we saw takers taking profit on their long BTC-27DEC24-100k-C positions and possibly rolling them out to March (130k–150k).”
This could delay a strong move above $100K in the short term, per QCP Capital. In fact, the firm added that the cryptocurrency would remain rangebound for the rest of the December holiday.
“Profit-taking on #BTC-100k options suggests ample gamma supply. Perp funding is flattish or slightly elevated. A range-bound holiday season seems more likely.”
The weak market sentiment might also be accelerated by the recent quantum breakthrough by Google’s Willow – A perceived existential threat to Bitcoin encryption.
Unlike classical computers, which can’t crack current cryptographic algorithms that safeguard BTC networks and wallets, quantum computers can breach this security.
So, Google’s update stirred the crypto community, with some members expressing concern about BTC’s safety. One user claimed,
“Google’s CEO brings alive the Great Bitcoin Short Thesis right as #BTC kisses $100k.”
However, some analysts downplayed the short-term impact of quantum computing, stating that the tech was decades away from cracking BTC security.
Some added that Willow had only 105 qubits, while it would take millions of qubits to breach BTC.
“Willow is 105 qubits. To comprise bitcoin it’s estimated to need 13 million to 1.9 billion qubits”
That said, the update underscored the urgency of developing quantum-resistant BTC. As researchers explore the best options, a soft fork (upgrade) could likely make this a reality.
From a technical charting perspective, BTC also had a massive price imbalance after the 5th December flash crash. In most cases, the price always retests these imbalances before continuing with the trend.
On Sunday, the 9th of December, BTC trader Cryp Nuevo predicted that BTC could slide to $94K to clear the price imbalance (half of the candlestick wick) before any move higher. His projection was validated hours later.
Now that the price imbalance has been cleared, will the price climb higher?
That remains to be seen. However, at press time, there was considerable upside liquidity (leveraged shorts) between $98K and $104K (bright orange levels). This could attract higher price action.
