{"id":887142,"date":"2026-01-22T20:29:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/bitcoin-ripped-to-94000-as-critical-metric-quietly-turns-positive-for-first-time-since-october\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:29:55","slug":"bitcoin-ripped-to-94000-as-critical-metric-quietly-turns-positive-for-first-time-since-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/bitcoin-ripped-to-94000-as-critical-metric-quietly-turns-positive-for-first-time-since-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin ripped to $94,000 as critical metric quietly turns positive for first time since October"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoins <\/p>\n

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Bitcoin ETFs grabbed $1.2 billion in the first two trading sessions of 2026, coinciding with BTC’s climb to $94,000, a 7% gain in just days. The narrative wrote itself: institutional money flooded in, prices followed.<\/p>\n

Yet, that correlation masks a more complex structural shift unfolding across options markets, on-chain flows, and derivatives positioning, suggesting the rally’s foundation runs deeper than spot demand alone.<\/p>\n

Bitcoins Paying up for convexity<\/h2>\n

Jeffrey Park<\/a>, CIO at ProCap BTC, flagged<\/a> that Bitcoin options call skew flipped positive on Jan. 1 for the first time since October. He surfaced a signal institutional traders watch more closely than AUM tallies: the cost of upside protection relative to downside hedges.<\/p>\n

Call skew measures the difference between the implied volatility of out-of-the-money calls and that of comparable puts, typically expressed as a 25-delta risk reversal.<\/p>\n

When that spread turns positive, traders bid more aggressively for upside exposure than for downside insurance. The market charges a premium for convexity in one direction, which functions as a live vote on where participants expect the price to break.<\/p>\n

Positive call skew reflects genuine demand for leverage on the upside, such as institutions positioning for breakouts, retail chasing momentum, or structured products needing call inventory.<\/p>\n

The mechanical effect compounds this: when dealers sell those calls, they hedge by buying spot or futures as prices rise, creating a feedback loop that amplifies rallies.<\/p>\n

The January flip in Bitcoin<\/a> options skew didn’t just reflect sentiment; it reconfigured the derivatives landscape in a way that makes upside moves self-reinforcing through delta-hedging flows.<\/p>\n

\"bitcoins
Bitcoin options call skew turned positive on Jan. 1 for the first time since October, signaling traders are paying more for upside protection. Image: Amberdata\/Jeff Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bitcoins Supply redistribution and leverage dynamics<\/h2>\n

Checkonchain framed the rally through a different lens<\/a> on Jan. 5, pointing to \u201cmassive supply redistribution happening under the hood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top-heavy supply dropped from 67% to 47%, while profit-taking gradually collapsed<\/a> from 30,721 BTC on Nov. 23 to just 3,596 BTC by Jan. 3.<\/p>\n

The market wasn’t simply rising: it was rebalancing, with concentrated holders distributing to buyers willing to absorb supply without immediately flipping for profit.<\/p>\n

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\"bitcoins <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When profit-taking evaporates while price climbs, it suggests new entrants are accumulating with longer time horizons.<\/p>\n

The drop in realized profit removes sell-side pressure that typically caps rallies. Recent buyers entered at prices closer to current levels, creating a cohort less incentivized to exit on marginal gains.<\/p>\n

\"bitcoins
BTC-denominated realized profit fell from 30,721 BTC on Nov. 23 to 3,596 BTC by Jan. 3, per Checkonchain data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The futures market added another layer. CoinGlass<\/a> data showed $530 million in liquidations over 24 hours<\/a>, with $361 million from shorts, a classic short squeeze that is helping the recent rally.<\/p>\n

However, the squeeze occurred within a low-leverage environment. Checkonchain data shows that crypto-native leverage fell from 5.2% to 4.8%<\/a> between Dec. 31 and Jan. 5, while global leverage dropped from 7.2% to 6.6%. Futures leverage inched up slightly to 3.3% but remained well below historical peaks.<\/p>\n

When shorts get squeezed in a low-leverage regime, the unwind removes resistance without creating systemic fragility on the long side.<\/p>\n

The lack of excessive leverage means the rally isn’t built on borrowed capital that would have to be deleveraged at the first sign of weakness. Spot-driven rallies don’t face the same reflexive deleveraging risk as futures-heavy moves.<\/p>\n

\"bitcoins
Crypto-native leverage ratio declined from 5.2% to 4.8% between Dec. 31 and Jan. 5, per Checkonchain data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The interplay between the mechanics of call skew repricing upside risk, supply consolidating into stronger hands, and leverage staying compressed creates a setup where catalysts like ETF inflows amplify rather than initiate the move.<\/p>\n

The ETFs provided a narrative anchor and liquidity entry point, but the structural conditions that allow prices to hold gains were already in place.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin’s breach of $94,000 marked the convergence of multiple structural indicators that suggest more conviction behind the move than spot flows alone would imply.<\/p>\n

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Mentioned in this article<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gino Matos Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin ETFs grabbed $1.2 billion in the first two trading sessions of 2026, coinciding with BTC’s climb to $94,000, a 7% gain in just days. The narrative wrote itself: institutional money flooded in, prices followed. Yet, that correlation masks a more complex structural shift unfolding across options markets, on-chain flows, and derivatives positioning, suggesting the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":887143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4041,32712],"tags":[11476],"class_list":["post-887142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bitcoin","category-ripped","tag-bitcoins"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}