Bitcoin aimed for $90,000 on Boxing Day as precious metals set yet another all-time high.
Key points:
- Bitcoin is aiming for a retest of $90,000 as traditional financial markets reopen following the Christmas break.
- Meanwhile, gold and silver quickly pushed to fresh all-time highs, extending their historic bull runs.
- BTC price action is also attempting to break out of a downtrend that has been in place since October.
Bitcoin traders are looking for relief following options expiry, as price action showed signs of strength.
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD was up more than 2% on the day, with gains holding through the Asia trading session.
Ahead of the Wall Street open, traders were watching a major Bitcoin options expiry worth nearly $24 billion.
The event was widely seen as an opportunity for the market to reset and potentially clear the way for renewed price strength.
“As these contracts roll off, the hedging pressure that has been keeping prices compressed begins to ease,” trader BitBull said in a post on X.
“After that, price action reflects real positioning again, not derivatives mechanics. That’s when direction usually becomes clearer.”
BitBull said recent Bitcoin price action has lacked an “organic” element, largely due to the influence of options-related activity.
Meanwhile, crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe said he expects market conditions to improve after the new year.
“January is typically a period when asset managers rebalance their portfolios,” he wrote on X. “Looking at most charts, where would you allocate?”
“For sure, nothing in commodities, they are well due for a correction. For sure, not tech stocks, as they are already on a tear and risk is relatively high. But yes, indices are still fine, and mostly, it’s Crypto and Bitcoin.”
Van de Poppe pointed to the continued outperformance of both gold and silver, which extended their rallies with fresh record highs during the session.
Silver has already surpassed Bitcoin by market capitalization to become the world’s third-largest asset, trailing only gold in first place and Nvidia in second, according to data from Infinite Market Cap.
BTC price analysis: Daily close seen as “key” for a breakout
In the near term, Bitcoin price action has remained rangebound, with sideways movement continuing to define short-term market behavior.
With both long and short entries proving difficult to time, even Bitcoin’s move toward $90,000 triggered more than $200 million in liquidations over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data.
“The daily close is key,” analytics account Crypto Ideology said, noting that price action was attempting to break out of a two-month downtrend.
“A confirmed breakout opens a move toward $95k, where the real test lies. Acceptance above $95k would likely lead to a move toward the weekly MA50, around the 100k zone.”
Bitcoin’s 50-day simple moving average (SMA) and exponential moving average (EMA) were at $91,458 and $92,651, respectively, at the time of writing.
Van de Poppe said he views crypto markets as “significantly undervalued and mispriced,” expecting liquidity to return and prices to challenge all-time highs in the coming months.
