Bitcoin must hold $94K next, says trader as BTC price dips at US open

Bitcoin (BTC) just pulled a classic rug-pull move at Thursday's Wall Street open — dipping below $96K as traders scramble to identify the next critical support levels. The sell-off comes right as geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran show signs of cooling, sending oil prices down but leaving BTC looking shaky.

Data from TradingView shows BTC price shedding over 1% versus the daily open, hitting lows of $95,563 on Bitstamp. The weakness means BTC/USD joined oil in diverging from stocks and precious metals, which were up on reports that geopolitical tensions were de-escalating.

Now, market participants are laser-focused on levels that need to hold during a potential correction within the local uptrend. Daan Crypto Trades dropped the real talk on X after what he called a 'solid breakout': 'Critical for the bulls to hold the $94K region going forward. Any moves back down that level would not make for a pretty look.'

Daan Crypto Trades is referring to the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), currently sitting at $99,555. Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on the bull market support band around $101,000 — now a major topic of interest along with the 50-week EMA. The weekly close target? $93,500, which happens to be the site of the 2025 yearly open.

Meanwhile, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveals that newer Bitcoin investors have already been tempted to cash out. As price hit two-month highs, short-term holders (STHs) — entities holding for up to six months — sent 40,000 BTC to exchanges over a 24-hour period. Of that total, about 37,800 BTC was sent in profit compared to when it last moved onchain.

CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost put it bluntly in a 'Quicktake' blog post: 'STHs remain clearly impacted by the recent correction, and it seems that more upside and stronger confirmation will be needed to rebuild confidence and generate enough unrealized profits to encourage them to hold rather than sell.'

Separate data from CryptoQuant contributor Axel Adler Jr. puts the aggregate cost basis for the STH cohort at $99,600 — reinforcing that area as a potential future resistance point that could make or break the next move.