Bitcoin’s First 2026 Showdown: Bulls Take the Lead

Price reflects everything, according to the first market theorist, Charles Dow. That's why the daily Bitcoin chart is essentially a scoreboard of the battle between bulls and bears.

As trading volume shows, the fight kicked off with a sharp price surge on January 5th. Bears counterattacked on the 6th, but bulls managed to keep the price near the top of the sideways channel. A breakout above it would have triggered a short squeeze, sending the price flying toward $100K. However, the bears defended their stop-losses by pushing the price down hard with a big red candle. The Bitcoin drop didn't continue, so the bulls won the first battle of the year.

They managed to close the daily candle above $90K. This level could become the launchpad for a run toward new all-time highs if: the Senate votes to pass a crypto-friendly law, the quarterly and annual earnings season brings positive news, or oil prices drop.

The likelihood of a Bitcoin rise is backed by Binance funding rates turning negative for the first time since November 23, 2025. In the recent past, a similar event coincided with a classic short squeeze: the price of BTC jumped from $86K to $93K in a short period.