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3 reasons why Bitcoin price can’t take out the $90K resistance level

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Since reaching a weekly high of $88,752 on March 24, Bitcoin (BTC) price has formed a series of lower highs and lower lows in the 1-hour time frame chart.

As the end of the week approaches, Bitcoin price has failed to break above the $88,000 resistance, reducing the chance for a $90,000 retest before the end of Q1.

Bitcoin 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

What is keeping Bitcoin under $90K?

One major reason for Bitcoin’s current price struggles is constant sell-side pressure from short-term holders (STHs) or investors holding coins for less than 155 days. Glassnode’s “The Week On-chain” newsletter noted that the current Bitcoin cycle has witnessed a “top heavy” market where investors who purchased BTC at higher prices hold a significant portion of Bitcoin’s supply. As a result, the STH cohort have become the primary group facing the largest price drawdown since Bitcoin’s 30% correction from its all-time high.

In the report, Glassnode analysts said,

“Volume of Short-Term Holder supply held in loss surging to a massive 3.4M BTC. This is the largest volume of STH supply in loss since July 2018.”

Bitcoin total supply in loss held by STHs. Source: Glassnode

The selling pressure faced by the short-term holders is reflected in Bitcoin’s accumulation trend score.

Bitcoin’s accumulation trend score, a metric that quantifies selling pressure, remained below 0.1 since BTC price dropped from $108,000 to the $93,000-$97,000 range. A score under 0.5 signals distribution (selling) instead of accumulation, and a sub-0.1 value highlights intense selling pressure.

Another reason Bitcoin has struggled to break through the $90,000 threshold is due to the contraction of liquidity conditions. Data suggests that onchain transfer volumes have dropped to $5.2 billion daily, a steep 47% decline from the peak during the rally to all-time highs. Similarly, the active address count has also decreased by 18%, dropping from 950,000 in November 2024 to 780,000.

At the same time, the open interest (OI) in the BTC futures market dropped 24% from $71.85 billion to $54.65 billion, with the perpetual futures funding rates also cooling down.

This deleveraging and liquidity contraction—combined with only 2.5% of the total supply moving in profit during the correction—limits the market’s capacity to rally past $90k since there are insufficient buy orders to absorb sell orders.

Related: Bitcoin price prediction markets bet BTC won’t go higher than $138K in 2025

New demand for Bitcoin continues to fall

Glassnode data also highlighted that the current BTC bull cycle lacks new demand (buyers) entering the market, with the Cost Basis Distribution (CBD) Heatmap showing supply concentration at higher price levels ($100K-$108K) but no significant influx of buyers at lower levels to drive a price recovery.

Bitcoin Euphoria Zone, Top Buyer Cost Basis. Source: Glassnode

The lack of demand factor is compounded by macroeconomic uncertainty, which has discouraged new investors, as seen in the transition to net capital outflows when the 1-week to 1-month STH cost basis fell below the 1-month to 3-month cost basis.

However, Glassnode analysts said,

“The flip side of these observations is that the Long-Term Holder cohort still retains a substantial portion of the network wealth, holding almost 40% of invested value.”

Essentially, these periods of prolonged accumulation can eventually constrict the supply and lead to better conditions for a new wave of demand once a stronger uptrend is established in the market.

Related: Would GameStop buying Bitcoin help BTC price hit $200K?

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Coin Market

Bitcoin must hold above $95K or face short-term rejection: Bitfinex

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Key takeaways:

Bitcoin must maintain above $95,000 to have a chance at retesting its $109,000 all-time high; failure to hold could lead to a deeper correction, crypto analysts warn.

Several crypto analysts told Cointelegraph in March that Bitcoin may have a chance of reaching new all-time highs in June.

The upcoming Federal Reserve decision on May 7 could influence Bitcoin’s price movement over the coming days.

Bitcoin needs to continue to hold above the $95,000 level for a chance to climb back and retest its all-time high, or face an even deeper correction, crypto analysts say.

It comes after several analysts told Cointelegraph earlier this year that June could be the month Bitcoin (BTC) reaches new all-time highs.

“The $95,000 level — currently under consolidation — is a critical pivot point, acting as the lower boundary of a three-month range that defined market structure between November 2024 and February 2025,” Bitfinex said in a May 6 markets report.

Bitcoin holding above $95K would signal a “structural shift”

Bitfinex said that Bitcoin holding above the $95,000 level would signal a “structural shift” back into bullish territory, with a potential upward trend toward retesting its all-time highs. 

Bitcoin reached its $109,000 all-time high on Jan. 20, just hours before US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin is trading at $96,730, up 3.03% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. 

However, Bitfinex analysts said if Bitcoin fails to hold above $95,000, it could be headed for further downfall.

“Failure to hold, however, could turn the region into resistance once more, raising the risk of a short-term rejection and another leg of corrective price action.”

They said the next several days will determine whether Bitcoin will be heading “into a sustained breakout or resolves into a retest of lower support zones.”

Bitcoin is up 2% over the past seven days. Source: CoinMarketCap

However, if Bitcoin continues the rally, it may catch many traders offside. Crypto analyst Thomas Fahrer said in a May 7 X post that $400 million of Bitcoin short positions are at risk of liquidation at the $98,000 price level. “Send it,” Fahrer said.

Bitcoin is approaching the timeframe many analysts predicted for new highs earlier this year. On March 28, Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts projected a best-case target of $123,000 by June.

Related: Bitcoin price rallied 1,550% the last time the ‘BTC risk-off’ metric fell this low

Around the same time, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said that Bitcoin has a “50% chance” of reaching new all-time highs before the end of June.

Since 2013, Bitcoin’s average performance in June has been slightly negative at -0.35%.

The upcoming Federal Reserve interest rate decision on May 7 could also have an impact on Bitcoin’s price.

The announcement often sees crypto market volatility both before and after the results are published. However, the latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool indicates that the futures market sees minimal odds of a rate cut.

Meanwhile, overall market sentiment is becoming more positive as Bitcoin’s price approaches the psychological $100,000 price level.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall market sentiment, has spiked again over the past 24 hours, further into “Greed” territory, jumping 8 points to a score of 67.

Magazine: 12 minutes of nail-biting tension when Ethereum’s Pectra fork goes live

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Coin Market

Coinbase x402 payments protocol to make AI agents more autonomous

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Coinbase has introduced a new payments protocol for online payments that enables stablecoin transfers over standard internet protocols and AI agents to transact autonomously.  

On May 6, Coinbase announced that it is launching a protocol called x402 for instant stablecoin payments directly over the internet communication protocol HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

It allows Application Programming Interface (APIs), apps, and AI agents to transact seamlessly, “unlocking a faster, automated internet economy,” the firm stated

Coinbase said that x402 “is fixing the internet’s first mistake.” The protocol resurrects the experimental HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code to create a seamless payment system native to the internet.

The firm noted that traditional payment rails, such as credit cards, bank transfers and subscriptions, “were built for a pre-internet world.” 

They’re slow, expensive, geographically limited, and “riddled with manual steps,” it added. 

However, x402 embeds stablecoin payments directly into web interactions, requiring minimal code integration, and is designed for both humans and AI agents to transact value as easily as exchanging data.

x402 payment flow. Source: Coinbase

The head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform and co-author of the x402 white paper, Erik Reppel, said, “We’re laying the groundwork for an economy run not just by people, but by software — autonomous, intelligent, and always on.”

Related: Coinbase sees first crypto transaction between AI agents

Gagan Mac, vice president of product management at Circle, said x402 “elegantly simplifies real-time monetization” and unlocks “exciting new use cases like micropayments for AI agents and apps.”

Coinbase is launching the new protocol in partnership with AWS (Amazon Web Services), stablecoin issuer Circle, AI company Anthropic and AI-focused proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain Near Protocol.

Big benefits for agentic AI

AI agents can achieve economic autonomy by independently transacting without human intervention. The protocol enables AI agents to access paid resources in real-time based on their needs and eliminates dependency on pre-paid credits, API keys, or human-managed accounts. 

AI agents can also provision and pay for hardware resources in real-time, access specialized data sources through micropayments, and pay other AI systems for services. 

The x402 protocol essentially transforms AI agents from tools that require constant human interaction into autonomous economic actors that can independently discover, purchase and utilize resources to accomplish their goals.

Developers can use the protocol to monetize APIs, create software unlocks and enable metered services that dynamically charge users based on actual resource usage, while content creators can monetize their content without the need for blanket subscriptions or credit card minimums and fees.

Magazine: Crypto AI tokens surge 34%, why ChatGPT is such a kiss-ass: AI Eye

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Coin Market

World Liberty Financial floats USD1 airdrop to WLFI holders

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Trump family-backed crypto platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is proposing to airdrop a small amount of its new US dollar-pegged stablecoin to reward early WLFI holders in a test of its airdrop mechanism.

With over 99% of votes in favor of the proposal already, the airdrop will distribute a small amount of USD1 to eligible holders of the WLFI token, according to the May 6 proposal in the WLFI governance forum.

“Testing the airdrop mechanism in a live setting is a necessary step to ensure smart contract functionality and readiness. This distribution also serves as a meaningful way to thank our earliest supporters and introduce them to USD1,” the proposal states. 

“This will allow World Liberty Financial to validate the technical functionality of its airdrop system in a live environment while thanking early supporters of the project.”

Source: World Liberty Financial

The amount of USD1 is still to be determined but will be based on the total eligible wallets and budget, according to the proposal.

The date for the airdrop is also pending, and WLFI says it reserves the “right to discontinue, suspend, modify or terminate the test airdrop” at any time.

The vote is scheduled to close on May 14, and so far, those in favor are ahead with 2.6 billion, or 99.97% of tokens, used to vote yes. Those against the measure make up about 901,000 votes, or 0.03% of the vote so far.

The airdrop vote will close on May 14, and so far, those in favor are way ahead in the poll. Source: World Liberty Financial

WLFI launched its stablecoin in early March. Since the platform’s launch in September, the crypto firm has also completed two public token sales, netting the firm a combined $550 million from the 85,000 registered holders.

Other countries challenging US dollar stablecoins

The market cap of US dollar-denominated stablecoins crossed $230 billion in April, a report from investment banking giant Citigroup found, an increase of 54% since last year, with Tether (USDT) and USDC (USDC) dominating 90% of the market.

Related: $1T stablecoin supply could drive next crypto rally — CoinFund’s Pakman

However, other countries have announced plans to launch stablecoins backed by currencies other than the US dollar.

On April 28, a trio of major Abu Dhabi institutions, including the Emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, announced a joint initiative to launch a new dirham-pegged stablecoin.

A Russian finance ministry official also floated a plan on April 16 for the country to develop its own stablecoin after a freeze on wallets linked to the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex by US authorities and stablecoin issuer Tether. 

Magazine: Ridiculous ‘Chinese Mint’ crypto scam, Japan dives into stablecoins: Asia Express

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