Bitcoin [BTC] faced another wave of selling during the New York session on Tuesday, 20 January. In just five hours of trading, BTC shed 1.81% of its value, falling below the psychological $90k support once again.
According to CoinGlass, the last 24 hours of trading have seen $1.09 billion worth of positions liquidated, with Bitcoin traders contributing to $453 million in liquidations. The vast majority were long positions, fueling the intense short-term selling pressure.
Source: Darkfost on X
In a post on X, crypto analyst Darkfost showed that the apparent demand has improved over the past 30 days. This metric measures the difference between new Bitcoin issuance and the supply that has been inactive for more than a year.
Demand was unable to take the upper hand before global markets faced another bout of FUD. Macro uncertainties fueled selling pressures, which triggered long liquidations, which forced further selling pressure in the derivatives market and dragged the prices lower.
Source: CryptoQuant Insights
A CryptoQuant Insights post by MorenoDV showed that a short-term sentiment shift might be upon us. The 30 and 90-day moving averages of the Bitcoin Fear and Greed saw a bullish crossover for the first time since May 2025.
It does not signal a euphoric phase. However, it tends to come when the market is still skeptical, confidence is fragile, and volatility is high. In the past two years, the weeks following this crossover have been bullish for BTC.
Sell signal – Where is the Bitcoin bear market confirmation?
Source: CryptoQuant
The realized price (RP) metric using UTXO age bands showed that the 6-12 month holder cohort’s RP was at $101,386. The 12-18 month cohort’s RP was at $82,379.
In the previous cycle, Bitcoin fell below the 6-12 month cohort’s RP, tested it as resistance in April 2022, then proceeded to fall below the older cohort’s realized price. If a similar scenario plays out, investors can watch out for a bounce just beyond $100k to use as a sell signal.
The line in the sand that confirms a bear market would be $82k.
Source: BTC/USD on TradingView
Finally, the weekly chart revealed a bullish structure from March 2023 that was still unbroken. The deep retracement in recent months was still above the 78.6% level of the previous swing impulse move higher.
According to the same, a bear market confirmation would be a weekly session close below the most recent swing low of the uptrend. At press time, this level was at $74,434.
Final Thoughts
- Fear and Greed’s moving average crossover showed that pessimism was weakening, and a short-term rally was possible.
- Realized price metric and the weekly chart highlighted that Bitcoin could bounce beyond $100k before falling towards $82k and lower.