Bitcoin Crushes Q3 with 40% Gain, Clears $85K Sell Wall

Bitcoin (BTC) just wrapped up its strongest Q3 performance since 2017, with a gain in the low-to-mid 40% range, according to CoinGlass. This quarter's advance far surpasses the single-digit average seen in most Q3s since 2013. The only year to produce a larger Q3 advance was 2017, when the price rose around 80%.

After a week of unsuccessful tests, buyers finally cleared the sell wall sitting over $85,000. This cleared the way for price to move higher, with subsequent readings placing the next visible cluster of sell orders near $87,000, roughly half the size of the original wall.

Derivatives desk QCP Capital noted that the advance was led by cash demand, rather than leveraged positioning, as evidenced by perpetual funding near an annualized 5.4%. QCP also observed that bitcoin's roughly 12% September gain against an 8.5% decline in gold suggests a split between flow- and positioning-driven trades.