Bitcoin Stalls Below $90K as Traders Eye $86K Support, Says Michaël van de Poppe

By the time Asian desks were opening on Monday, Bitcoin had once again bounced off a region traders had circled for weeks, the low $90,000s, and was trading back near the high $80,000s. Price feeds put BTC around $87,900, a small pullback from intraday highs that briefly flirted with $90,000 before sellers reappeared.

The retreat drew a blunt assessment from Dutch analyst Michaël van de Poppe, who tweeted that Bitcoin “rejects at a crucial resistance zone and continues the sideways price action,” while stressing that the move on lower timeframes still looks constructive. He added that a rejection at $90,000 “isn’t a bad sign, as of yet,” and argued the market is clearly trying to hold $86,000 as support, a line that, if defended, would give bulls the argument they need to keep pressing toward those higher resistance bands. Van de Poppe also suggested that “some parties are suppressing the price action of Bitcoin,” a point he framed as an observation rather than a proven fact.

Technically, the action fits what many chart-watchers are describing as a range-bound tape. Bitcoin’s attempt to clear the mid-$90,000s stalled and sellers stepped in around the $90,000–$92,000 area, leaving a string of lower highs that keep the path to a retest of $100,000 difficult without a decisive break. Historical intraday prints and recent daily closes show repeated rejections in that neighborhood, reinforcing the short-term resistance. If the market does give up the $86,000 area, the next visible floor would be nearer the $80,000 level that acted as a double bottom earlier in the year.

Broader Bitcoin Outlook

Broader market flows are shading the price story. Institutional buying that helped drive Bitcoin to its October peak has slowed at the same time, some large holders and corporate balance-sheet managers are taking different steps. Largest corporate holder Strategy (ticker MSTR) raised hundreds of millions through a stock sale recently and paused fresh direct Bitcoin purchases, a move that analysts say takes an important marginal buyer out of the market, at least temporarily. That pause, and the company’s decision to funnel cash into reserves, has been put forward as one of the reasons Bitcoin’s momentum has cooled even while equities and precious metals have shown relative strength.

That divergence, where gold and equities have rallied while crypto lags, has fed the “suppression” narrative for some traders, though mainstream outlets and analysts generally point to more prosaic explanations such as profit-taking, the end of heavy ETF inflows in the short term and the need for liquidity to cover corporate obligations. Reuters, for example, noted that 2025 has been a rollercoaster: record highs followed by sharp sell-offs leave Bitcoin vulnerable to ending the year lower, and seasonal liquidity thinness around year-end often amplifies price whipsaws.

Looking forward, the debate is split. Some Wall Street desks still offer bullish year-ahead numbers. Citi’s much-publicized model, for instance, projects a path toward substantially higher prices next year if ETF flows resume, but the near-term path depends on whether $86,000 holds and whether institutional buyers re-engage. If $86,000 survives as support, van de Poppe and other technicians say that the narrative favors another push at the 90k–94k resistance band. If it breaks, the market may need to work through the $80k area before bulls can credibly argue the uptrend remains intact.

Traders should expect volatile, whipsaw trading over the holiday-thinned weeks ahead. Van de Poppe’s message was part warning, part reassurance: rejection at a key zone is frustrating, but it doesn’t yet invalidate the constructive lower-timeframe setups he and others are watching. For now, the market will likely oscillate between those competing narratives, cautious bulls waiting for $86K to prove itself, and sellers ready to test the next lower support if that line fails.