BTC not yet in confirmed bull market as spot demand remains key

Chloe, an HTX DeepThink columnist and HTX Research researcher, said Bitcoin has moved out of a bear-market structure and entered a key zone for confirming a trend reversal, but a new bull market has not yet been confirmed. Chloe said BTC has entered a supply zone between $81,000 and $86,000, and further gains need to be supported by genuine spot buying rather than a short squeeze. During BTC’s earlier rise from $60,000 to $80,000, about $3 billion in short positions were liquidated, while open interest fell about 11% afterward and funding rates stayed near neutral levels. Chloe added that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw more than $2.8 billion in net inflows during the August breakout phase, but posted about $46 million in net outflows over the first three trading days of September. Taken together, the current move appears closer to a phase of testing whether a further breakout can be sustained than to the start of a full-fledged bull market, Chloe said.