Why Bitcoin Price Could Head Down to $102K, According to Charts

Bitcoin USD may look stable above $108,000, however, under the surface, it’s anything but.

According to new liquidation heatmaps and leverage data, the market appears to be laying the groundwork for a two-sided liquidation event that could drag the price of Bitcoin back toward the $102K zone.

Analysts tracking derivatives flow say the current calm may be masking one of the most tightly engineered wipeout setups since Q1 2024.

On-chain and trading data suggest the recent push to $108K might be a final liquidity sweep, not a clean breakout.

Heatmaps Show Longs and Shorts Piled on Both Ends

Liquidation maps reveal a classic trap: short liquidations loaded from $108K to $110K, and a dense cluster of long liquidations sitting under $102K.

This pattern often precedes what traders call a “liquidity sandwich,” where BTC price spikes in both directions to flush out overleveraged positions.

This liquidation stack shows how traders betting on both sides of Bitcoin USD may be walking into a trap.

The danger? If Bitcoin sweeps short liquidations first (to $109K+), it opens the door for a sharp reversal that punishes late longs, triggering a chain reaction that pushes the market toward the $102K long wall.

Funding Rates Turn Positive, But It’s a Trap

Bitcoin’s OI-weighted funding rate is rising again, flipping green across major timeframes. At face value, that implies bullish sentiment; more traders are paying to hold long positions. But context matters.

The issue isn’t that funding is positive; it’s who’s getting long, and when. Price has barely moved during this shift, while open interest remains flat.

That means leverage is building without real momentum. These “hope longs” are often the first to be liquidated.

This becomes especially risky when paired with liquidation heatmaps showing dense short liquidations above $108K. If the market moves up to trigger those stops, it could create a short-term spike that falsely confirms a breakout, only to trap late longs and reverse violently.

In this context, Bitcoin USD funding data is acting more like bait than confirmation.

In essence, funding rates are not confirming strength; they’re baiting leverage into a sweep-and-dump zone.

Bitcoin USD Price Action Lacks Confirmation as Smart Money Stalls

On the surface, BTC price’s ascending wedge breakout looks promising, but the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) tells a different story.

Despite the push to $108K, CMF is flatlining, hovering just above neutral. In a healthy breakout, we’d expect CMF to spike, showing that institutional or large-scale capital is flowing in.

That’s not the case here. Instead, volume is thinning, and the breakout candles show low conviction.

Without strong inflows or rising CMF, Bitcoin USD is structurally weak despite holding the $108K level.

This raises a red flag: Is the breakout real, or just another engineered sweep? From a structural standpoint, the price is nearing the apex of the wedge, but without volume or money flow confirmation, it becomes the perfect technical trap.

If CMF continues to weaken while price hovers near $109K, the odds of a false breakout for Bitcoin USD and reversal toward the $102K liquidation cluster increase sharply.

The post Why Bitcoin Price Could Head Down to $102K, According to Charts appeared first on The Coin Republic.