Is Bitcoin Price Witnessing A Relief Rally? What On-Chain Data Says

bitcoinistPubblicato 2026-01-10Pubblicato ultima volta 2026-01-10

Introduzione

Bitcoin's price has shown a strong start to 2026, mostly staying above the key $90,000 level, sparking debate on whether this is a true bullish resurgence or a bear market relief rally. Analyst Maartunn points to on-chain data, noting that the bounce was supported by the ETF Realized Price at $85,000, where buyers defended their positions. The Coinbase Premium Gap also rose, indicating increased buying from U.S. investors, followed by strong ETF inflows—suggesting strategic rebalancing rather than emotional FOMO. However, BTC was rejected at the $94,000 resistance and remains below critical on-chain levels like the Short-Term Holder and Whale Realized Prices. Despite a 10% rise, the analyst concludes this is likely a relief rally within a bear trend. A sustained break above $94,000 is needed to confirm a bullish restart. Currently, BTC is trading around $90,360, down 1% in 24 hours.

The Bitcoin price looks to be off to a great start, having spent most of the new year above the psychological $90,000 mark. While the premier cryptocurrency has slowed down in recent days, there has been a display of significant bullish intent in the market so far in 2026.

Now, this latest show of optimism somewhat contradicts recent predictions that the Bitcoin price might be at the start of a bear market. This begs the question — could the bull run be nearing a restart, or is the price of BTC only witnessing a relief rally?

BTC’s Recent Bounce A Mere Bear Market Relief Rally — Analyst

In a January 9 post on the X platform, crypto analyst Maartunn shared interesting data points to answer the question of whether Bitcoin’s latest price bounce is meaningful or just a relief rally. The market pundit anchored their answer on both on-chain and technical price data.

Firstly, Maartunn acknowledged that the recent jump was only bound to happen, as the Bitcoin price found support around the ETF Realized Price at $85,000. This price level represents the average cost basis of BTC ETF investors, and as expected, the buyers defended their positions — leading to the price bounce.

This phenomenon is spotlighted by another on-chain metric, the Coinbase Premium Gap, which measures the difference between the Bitcoin price on Coinbase and global exchanges. According to Maartunn, the metric started to rise right after New Year’s Eve, signaling renewed buying activity from US-based investors.

Furthermore, the spot exchange-traded funds started seeing strong capital inflows days after this uptick in the Coinbase Premium Gap. “This looks more like strategic buying/portfolio rebalancing (new quarter, new year) than emotional FOMO,” Maartunn added.

Source: @JA_Maartun on X

However, the crypto analyst noted that the rally only saw the Bitcoin Price climb to the range high at $94,000 before getting rejected. In essence, this suggests that the flagship cryptocurrency does not possess the bullish strength to breach that resistance.

Additionally, Maartunn mentioned that Bitcoin is still trading beneath crucial on-chain levels like the Short-Term Holder Realized Price and Whale Realized Price, both of which are acting as significant overhead resistance.

The on-chain analyst noted that the on-chain observations suggest that this recent bounce is merely a bear market relief rally, not a trend continuation — even though the price is up by about 10%. Only a clean break and sustained close above the $94,000 would indicate the Bitcoin price’s strong intent to rebuild a bullish structure, Martunn concluded.

Bitcoin Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at $90,360, reflecting an almost 1% decline in the past 24 hours.

The price of BTC on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView

Domande pertinenti

QWhat on-chain metric signaled renewed buying activity from US-based investors after New Year's Eve?

AThe Coinbase Premium Gap, which measures the difference between the Bitcoin price on Coinbase and global exchanges.

QAccording to analyst Maartunn, what price level acted as a key support for Bitcoin, leading to the recent bounce?

AThe ETF Realized Price at $85,000, which represents the average cost basis of BTC ETF investors.

QWhat does the analyst conclude the recent Bitcoin price bounce represents, based on the on-chain data?

AHe concludes it is merely a bear market relief rally, not a trend continuation or the restart of a bull run.

QWhat critical resistance level did the Bitcoin price get rejected at during this rally?

AThe range high at $94,000.

QWhat two specific on-chain price levels is Bitcoin still trading beneath, which are acting as significant overhead resistance?

AThe Short-Term Holder Realized Price and the Whale Realized Price.

Letture associate

Historical Data Shows Bitcoin Price Has Never Breached This Level – Will It Start Now?

Historical data reveals a consistent pattern in Bitcoin's price action: after recovering 30% from a cycle low, it has never retested that bottom. This has held true across six major cycles since 2011. The current cycle, which saw a low near $61,300 in February, is approaching this critical threshold at approximately $79,694. Bitcoin has already up about 28% and needs just a 2.7% increase to breach this historically significant level. Supporting this bullish signal, exchange reserves have hit new lows, and large investors have accumulated the most BTC in a month since 2013.

bitcoinist1 h fa

Historical Data Shows Bitcoin Price Has Never Breached This Level – Will It Start Now?

bitcoinist1 h fa

Why Bitcoin Still Acts Like A Risk Asset Despite Safe-Haven Claims

Bitcoin possesses inherent qualities of a safe-haven asset, such as being portable and censorship-resistant. However, it continues to trade like a risk asset, correlating with indices like the NASDAQ during periods of uncertainty. Analysts attribute this to its lack of widespread acceptance by large capital pools, a process that may take another decade. Currently, Bitcoin is showing technical weakness with a bearish market structure shift and a rejection from a monthly fair value gap, suggesting a higher probability of a breakdown and a potential move lower. The broader downside thesis remains intact unless BTC breaks out of its current pattern with strength.

bitcoinist1 h fa

Why Bitcoin Still Acts Like A Risk Asset Despite Safe-Haven Claims

bitcoinist1 h fa

Eight Years of Entrepreneurship Notes from a16z's AI Partner

An early generative AI entrepreneur reflects on his 8-year journey building Rosebud AI, founded in 2018—a time when the field was still called “synthetic media.” Initially experimenting with models like CycleGAN and StyleGAN, he believed AI could make creation as intuitive as playing a game. Over the years, his team launched multiple products, including the viral app TokkingHeads, which gained 2 million users, learning to design around imperfect model outputs to deliver “good enough” user experiences. The evolution from niche synthetic media to general-purpose AI infrastructure—especially after GPT-4’s release—reshaped product possibilities. Code generation matured enough by 2023 to enable text-to-game prototyping. The author emphasizes that the real differentiator now isn’t just model capability but product design, distribution, and business model innovation. Having stepped down as CEO of Rosebud AI, he joins a16z as a partner focused on investing in the frontier model stack—models, infrastructure, and tools. He remains optimistic about AI-driven progress in creative tools, coding, and scientific domains. The piece concludes with a forward-looking note: the next phase of AI will be less about what’s possible and more about how capabilities are productized and scaled in the real world.

marsbit3 h fa

Eight Years of Entrepreneurship Notes from a16z's AI Partner

marsbit3 h fa

How Many Tokens Away Is Yang Zhilin from the 'Moon Chasing the Light'?

The article explores the intense competition between two leading Chinese AI companies, DeepSeek and Kimi (Moon Dark Side), and the mounting pressure on Yang Zhilin, the founder of Kimi. While DeepSeek re-emerged after 15 months of silence with its powerful V4 model—boasting 1.6 trillion parameters and low-cost, long-context capabilities—Kimi has been focusing on long-context processing and multi-agent systems with its K2.6 model. Yang faces a threefold challenge: technological rivalry, commercialization pressure, and investor expectations. Despite Kimi’s high valuation (reaching $18 billion), its revenue heavily relies on a single product with low paid conversion rates, while DeepSeek’s strategic silence and open-source influence have strengthened its market position and valuation prospects, now targeting over $20 billion. Both companies reflect broader trends in China’s AI ecosystem: Kimi aims for global influence through open-source contributions and agent-based advancements, while DeepSeek prioritizes foundational innovation and hardware independence, notably shifting to Huawei’s chips. Their competition is seen as vital for China’s AI progress, with the gap between top Chinese and U.S. models narrowing to just 2.7% on the Elo rating scale. Ultimately, the article argues that this rivalry, though anxiety-inducing for leaders like Zhilin, is essential for driving innovation and solidifying China’s role in the global AI landscape.

marsbit4 h fa

How Many Tokens Away Is Yang Zhilin from the 'Moon Chasing the Light'?

marsbit4 h fa

TechFlow Intelligence Bureau: ChatGPT Helps Amateur Mathematician Crack 60-Year-Old Problem, CFTC Sues New York Regulator Over Coinbase and Gemini

An amateur mathematician, with the assistance of ChatGPT, has solved a combinatorial mathematics puzzle originally proposed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős in the 1960s. This marks another milestone in AI-aided mathematical research, demonstrating the evolving capabilities of large language models in formal reasoning. In other AI developments, OpenAI introduced a new privacy filter tool for enterprise API usage, automatically screening sensitive data. Meanwhile, the Qwen3.6-27B model achieved 100 tokens per second on a single RTX 5090 GPU using quantization, significantly lowering the cost barrier for local AI deployment. In crypto and Web3, the U.S. CFTC sued New York’s financial regulator, challenging its oversight of Coinbase and Gemini—a first-of-its-kind federal-state regulatory clash. Following a vulnerability, KelpDAO and major DeFi protocols established a recovery fund. Tether froze $344 million in assets linked to Iran’s central bank upon U.S. Treasury request, highlighting the centralized control risks in stablecoins. Separately, Litecoin underwent a 3-hour chain reorganization to undo a privacy-layer exploit. In the U.S., former President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to address power grid bottlenecks affecting AI data centers and dismissed the entire National Science Board, raising concerns over research independence. A retail trader gained 250% on a $600k Intel options bet amid AI-related speculation. Xiaomi announced its first performance electric vehicle, targeting rivals like Tesla. Meanwhile, iPhone users reported devices automatically reinstalling a hidden app daily, suspected to be MDM-related. A Chinese securities report noted that A-share institutional crowding has reached its second-longest streak since 2007, signaling high valuations and potential style rotation. The day’s developments reflect a dual narrative: AI is enabling unprecedented individual breakthroughs, while centralized power structures—whether governmental or corporate—are becoming more assertive, underscoring that decentralization is as much a political-economic challenge as a technical one.

marsbit4 h fa

TechFlow Intelligence Bureau: ChatGPT Helps Amateur Mathematician Crack 60-Year-Old Problem, CFTC Sues New York Regulator Over Coinbase and Gemini

marsbit4 h fa

Trading

Spot

Futures