Bitcoin Price action looked strangely sluggish early last month, even as traditional assets such as precious metals and stocks hit new highs.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency has repeatedly failed to break through the $90,000 level – a stall that, in hindsight, foreshadowed the recent sell-off to $75,000.
At the time, traders blamed everything from the flight to safer assets and dwindling demand for crypto, to ETF spot feed churns and end-of-month positioning. But some analysts say the real story was visible long before the price crash – in plain sight on foreign exchange order books.
According to Keith Alan, co-founder of trading analytics firm Material Indicators, order book data showed persistent selling pressure below $90,000 that consistently stifled bullish momentum, even when overall market conditions looked favorable.
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FireCharts shows $BTC the price is suppressed by an entity using a liquidity pooling strategy to drive the price down, potentially to have its own bids filled, or to keep the price at the lower end of this range before Friday’s options expiration.
A significant amount of… pic.twitter.com/c63miAxBkh
— Hardware Indicators (@MI_Algos) January 29, 2026
He described this behavior as a form of “liquidity hoarding,” where large orders shape market behavior by pushing prices toward levels that benefit the dominant participant.
Think of it like a crowded auction where one very big player controls the room. By placing large sell orders where everyone can see them, buying appears risky. As buyers hesitate, the price drifts sideways or falls, allowing that player to quietly accumulate to more favorable levels.
This tactic does not rely on news or fundamentals. It uses the order book itself to influence behavior – and it often appears at options expiration, when keeping the price within a specific range can reduce losses or improve payouts for large traders.
At the same time, order book data showed a dense group of bids between around $85,000 and $87,500. This area repeatedly absorbed selling pressure and served as a short-term bottom during Bitcoin’s consolidation phase.
“If this support continued, it was seen as a potential basis for another, higher attempt,” Alan said at the time. “But once it breaks, things can happen quickly.”
This warning proved prescient. When Bitcoin finally fell below the lower end of this supply group, selling accelerated quickly as low liquidity amplified each move. This break marked a decisive failure of the range which had contained prices for weeks.
Bitcoin tested levels near $74,000 to $76,000 over the weekend, highlighting a fragile battle between dip buyers and forced sellers in a tight market.
BTC in “bearadise”
Meanwhile, Alan previously warned that a monthly close below around $87,500 – the opening level for 2026 – would represent a clear technical failure. He referred to such a scenario as a shift to “Beearadise,” shorthand for a phase where bearish momentum feeds on itself as confidence erodes.
Large players influencing short-term price action via liquidity placement are not new to crypto markets.
Whales and high-frequency traders have long used visible order book depth to shape expectations, often trapping smaller traders on the wrong side of the move.
In hindsight, however, the same order book dynamics that kept bitcoin below $90,000 also left it vulnerable once support gave way.
