Bitcoin remains confined between structural support near $81,300 and persistent selling pressure above $95,000, with spot demand selective and futures positioning focused on de-risking, glassnode said in its December 18 weekly analysis. Price was capped around $93,000 before pulling back to $85,600, reflecting dense supply between $93,000 and $120,000, with upside likely constrained as long as Bitcoin trades below the 0.75 percentile near $95,000 and fails to reclaim the short-term holder cost basis around $101,500. Options markets reinforce a range-bound structure with near-dated implied volatility compressing and expiry-driven positioning keeping price action constrained into late December. The firm notes a material shift would require either sellers exhausting supply above $95,000 or fresh liquidity inflows strong enough to absorb existing supply and reclaim key cost-basis levels.

Bitcoin is breaking out of a flag consolidation pattern with a short-term price target of $70,000, crypto analyst @alicharts said on Dec. 18, BlockBeats reports. The analyst linked the technical pattern breakout directly to the $70,000 level for BTC.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $457.3M on Dec. 18, with Fidelity's FBTC adding $391.5M and BlackRock's IBIT contributing $111.2M, while Bitwise's BITB and ARK's ARKB saw outflows of $8.4M and $37M respectively, Farside Investors data show. US spot Ethereum ETFs posted net outflows of $22.4M the same day, with BlackRock's ETHA losing $19.6M and Fidelity's FETH seeing $2.8M of redemptions.

Bitcoin long positions on major centralized exchanges face aggregated liquidation intensity of $915 million if the price falls below $84,000 on December 18, Coinglass data cited by BlockBeats show. Short positions would see cumulative liquidation intensity reach $1.463 billion if Bitcoin breaks above $89,000. The liquidation heatmap reflects relative intensity of each cluster rather than exact contract values, with higher bars indicating levels where liquidity waves could trigger stronger market reactions.

Bitcoin briefly fell below $86,000 on Dec. 18, HTX data show. The cryptocurrency declined 1.87% over the preceding 24-hour period.

Coinglass data show cumulative long liquidation intensity across mainstream centralized exchanges would reach $1.052 billion if Bitcoin falls below $85,000 on Dec. 18. Conversely, a break above $88,000 would trigger cumulative short liquidation intensity of $371 million on mainstream exchanges.

Bitcoin briefly rose above $90,000 on Dec. 17 before reversing to trade below $88,000, BlockBeats reports. The token was recently quoted at $87,333, down 0.50% over 24 hours.

Bitcoin fell below $89,000 on Dec. 17, HTX market data show. The 24-hour gain narrowed to 1.81%.