Top crypto analyst Ali Martinez has identified a cup and handle pattern on Bitcoin’s chart. The pattern is a multi-year one and spans over two years (2022 to 2024).
The rally of 3.5% in Bitcoin yesterday has helped it break out of this chart pattern. As a result, Bitcoin now looks at a potential target of $276.4k, nearly 176% above current price levels. At press time, Bitcoin was trading around $104k with a 5.86% Intraday gain and a weekly gain of 10.2%.
Who is Buying Bitcoin Now?
Bitcoin has lately seen a decent inflow in its ETFs, strong buying from MicroStrategy, and similar companies such as Metaplanet, Riot Platforms, and Marathon Holdings. Further, crypto whales have also been accumulating Bitcoin at a very high pace.
BTC Shines Despite Bad Macroeconomic Data
All of these put together, helped Bitcoin cross $100k despite bad macroeconomic signals from the US Fed and US CPI. Last month, the US Fed signaled that in 2025, there would be far lower rate cuts due to high inflation. Yesterday’s US CPI data further added to these woes as it showed inflation was at 2.9% against the expected 2.5%.
High inflation sucks away the spending capacity of the investor, which then prompts central banks like the US Fed to introduce rate hikes. Rate hikes then suck away the excess money in the economy, bringing inflation down.
The higher-than-expected inflation rate of 2.9% is expected to trigger a rate cut in 2025. This is opposite to our earlier expectations of at least two rate cuts in 2025. Due to high interest rates in the US (4% to 4.25% window), the Fed was expected to bring at least a net 0.5% rate cut in line with what it did in September 2025. At present, the US has one of the highest interest rates that it has seen since 2008.
Trump’s Strategic US Reserves Promise
The primary reason that triggered a bull rally in the current markets is Donald Trump’s promise to include Bitcoin in the US Strategic Reserves, the same asset group that backs the US Dollar. The decision to buy Bitcoin for the Strategic Reserves means that there will be less Bitcoin in the market which would then shoot up its price.
Current US strategic reserves include gold (at Fort Knox), US Treasury bonds, and some foreign currency, all of which are managed by the Department of Treasury and the US Federal Reserve.
There were further speculations that the Trump administration might include US-based cryptocurrencies like XRP and Algorand in the Strategic Reserves, and this caused XRP to skyrocket 45% in a week. Algorand too surged 28% in the same period.
