- Whale buys $91M in BTC as retail shorts stack up, setting up a potential short squeeze.
- Bitcoin hits $93K with strong momentum, but RSI hints at possible exhaustion near-term.
Bitcoin [BTC] has surged past the $90,000 mark again, trading at $93,556 at press time. This was fueled partly by accumulation from deep-pocketed whales, even as retail traders double down on short positions.
With sentiment starkly divided, the market is going back and forth — a violent short squeeze or the formation of a local top?
Whale snaps up $91M in BTC as price hits $90K
Just five minutes before BTC reclaimed the $90,000 level, a Binance hot wallet received a 1,000 BTC transfer, valued at over $91 million.
Source: X
The timing points to calculated accumulation by a whale, seemingly betting on continued upside as market momentum built.
Yet, not all whales are aligned.
According to Lookonchain, shortly after BTC crossed $92,000, two wallets opened massive short positions using 6x leverage at $92,469.1 and $92,664.8, with the total position size reaching $74.5 million.
With liquidation levels set above $107,000, this trader is anticipating a near-term reversal or correction.
The contrasting moves show a widening divergence in whale sentiment – where some are doubling down on the rally while others are positioning for a sharp mean reversion.
Retail bets against the rally, but a squeeze may be brewing
As Bitcoin pushes past $90,000, retail sentiment has flipped contrarian.
The Retail Long/Short Ratio has steadily declined, with traders increasingly shorting BTC even as the price climbs.
Short positions involve betting on an asset’s price to decline. When many short positions accumulate during a price rally, it creates conditions for a short squeeze.
Source: Alphractal
A short squeeze occurs when prices rise sharply, forcing short traders to buy back assets to cover losses. Heatmaps reveal that this phenomenon is not limited to BTC, as short positions dominate retail flows across multiple assets.
While this could boost gains in the short term, a sudden resurgence in long interest may signal market exhaustion. Such a shift could indicate the formation of a local top, coinciding with peak euphoria among traders.
Bitcoin momentum holds strong, but overheating signs emerge
Bitcoin climbed to $93K, extending its rally with back-to-back green candles and a bullish gap from $88,000.
At press time, the RSI hovered near 68, just shy of overbought territory, suggesting bullish momentum is intact but potentially nearing exhaustion.
Meanwhile, OBV continued to trend higher, indicating strong buying pressure supporting the move.
Source: TradingView
If BTC closes above $94,000 with rising volume, it could open doors to $96K and beyond. However, a cooling RSI or bearish divergence would hint at weakening strength, making $91K a key support to watch on any pullback.