Bitcoin's $81K Rally Hits Resistance as Institutional Buying Comes into Focus

Bitcoin's explosive rebound ran into resistance above $81,000 on Tuesday, giving traders a serious test of whether the recovery has enough genuine buying behind it.

The cryptocurrency reached an intraday high of $81,265 before retreating, with its rally stalled at the $81,000-$83,000 zone after a short squeeze. The zone offered traders an obvious place to lock in gains, as the 24% rally in a little over a week had become increasingly stretched.

FOREX.com market analyst David Scutt warned that repeated failed breakouts were becoming difficult to dismiss, highlighting overbought daily momentum and emerging bearish divergence in the relative-strength index. The bigger question concerns what powered Bitcoin into that resistance, with Charles Schwab head of crypto research Jim Ferraioli noting that about $6.4 billion of leveraged short perpetual positions had been liquidated during the rally.

The durability of the rally now depends on whether institutional buying continues after forced liquidations have cleared, said CryptoQuant chief analyst Julio Moreno. He remains constructive, with 'basically all metrics pointing to the initial phase of a new bull market', but noted that Bitcoin still needs to move above its 365-day moving average near $83,000 for stronger confirmation.