Bitcoin’s Bullish Sentiment: A Futures-Driven Rally to $101,500?
Bitcoin traders’ risk sentiment has turned bullish, as evidenced by this week’s futures-driven rise to $95,000. Will the bulls make another attempt after retesting a key underlying support level? As 2026 begins, Bitcoin and select altcoins rallied back towards their weekly highs, and the current situation across all markets highlights the improvement in investor sentiment and trading volumes.
Since January 1, Bitcoin showed further improvement, with narrowing range consolidation clearly reflected in higher intraday lows and higher highs, leading to the weekly high at $94,800. 
Review of BTC/USDT 7-day liquidation heatmap. Source: Hyblock
Technical Analysis and Liquidation Heatmap
Hyblock’s 7-day liquidation heatmap data shows long liquidation clusters between $89,000 and $87,000 and short positions at weekly highs around $95,000. From a technical trader’s perspective, the rally at the beginning of the year took the price above the 20-day moving average, which is currently converging with the 50-day moving average.
After BTC failed to hold $95,000 and liquidate the short positions in this zone, some traders appear to have reduced their positions to take profits in anticipation of a retest of the lower support of the 20-MA at $89,400. 
BTC/USDT (Binance) 1-day chart. Source: TradingView.com
Potential for Another Rally
If the current trend continues and volume allows, there could be another attack on the $95,000 mark in the coming days. Such a move could lead to short covering and liquidations, allowing bulls to exploit a significant gap in the volume profile of the BTC/USDT pair (Binance) and setting Bitcoin up for a 13% rise to $101,500.
As shown in the chart below, the majority of Bitcoin’s intraday price action this week was driven by traders using perpetual futures to trigger liquidations. Note that as BTC rose to $94,800 on January 5, there was a nearly $1.1 billion increase in futures buying volume, according to data from TRDR.io, and $100 million in short positions in the BTC/USDT pair were liquidated on Binance. 
Example of criminal traders driving Bitcoin price action. Source: TRDR.io
As previously explained, the current liquidation heatmap data and order book structure suggest that a similar event could happen again if traders push the BTC price to $94,000. For more information, read the full article on Cointelegraph.
