Bitcoin Bulls Battle Boring Markets as Analyst Eyes $120K Short-Term Target

To say recent crypto price action is boring is quite an understatement. Bitcoin and Co. continue to trade in a narrow band, with the original cryptocurrency holding at US$108k (AU$165k).
After a 95% gain over the past year, BTC has largely remained within this corridor, aside from a couple of dips well below the US$100k (AU$150k) mark.

Buying of the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has also slowed. A recent report by CryptoQuant shows that despite hefty institutional buys from these ETFs and companies like Strategy, overall spot demand for Bitcoin has fallen sharply – down by 895,000 BTC over the past 30 days – more than offsetting those inflows.

Read also: Stablecoins Over CBDCs: Will Australia Follow the US Regulatory Drift?

Big Bitcoin Buyers Running Out of Steam?

Moreover, ETF and Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) purchases have slowed dramatically compared to December (from 86k and 171k BTC to just 40k and 16k, respectively), leaving Bitcoin stuck in consolidation without enough demand to spark a breakout, the analysts wrote. 

Although others, like Metaplanet, are ramping up their Bitcoin buying, SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci recently said that the trend of companies buying BTC could soon fade.

Right now we’re having this replicative treasury company idea. So, you know, it will fade.

Anthony Scaramucci

Scaramucci isn’t bearish on Bitcoin, but he cautioned, “As an investor, you have to look through the underlying costs associated with each of these treasury companies,” suggesting that one is better off buying the underlying asset (Bitcoin) outright rather than through those firms. 

Trump’s TACO War Wages On

However, there are some silver linings, for example, Trump’s tariff war has been postponed for the moment. Trump said that several countries would be slapped with 20-30% tariffs, but the fact that these would only come into effect on 1 August had many relieved.

Crypto analyst Ted Pillows said that the postponed deadlines are “a green signal for the markets” and could propel Bitcoin to US$120k “within a few weeks”.

Initially, the Trump administration had set 7 July as the deadline for negotiations, so even with the fresh tariff announcement, the door remains open for further talks or extensions – in other words, a soft taco.