When Bitcoin (BTC) last week surpassed the $97,000 price mark on Jan. 14, the crypto community hoped it would soon hit the much-awaited $100,000 mark.
After all, U.S. spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to BTC had logged their largest daily inflows in three months on Jan. 14.
As per the on-chain analytics platform SoSoValue, the figure hit $843.62 million on the day.
Related: Why massive capital inflows could propel Bitcoin beyond $100,000
Earlier, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. witnessed a net inflow of $875.61 million on Oct. 7, 2025—the last time inflows surpassed the above figure—only days preceding the Oct. 10 flash crash.
So, it wasn't an unreasonable expectation at all.
Yet, the optimism proved to be short-lived as Bitcoin failed to consolidate the gains and fell to as low as $92,263.02 on Jan. 19.
As per one analyst, the reason for the decline is selling pressure by American whales.
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On Jan. 19, an analyst on the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant identified the "strongest" Bitcoin selling premium in recent periods as the Coinbase Premium Gap (CPG) dipped over the weekend.
CPG tracks the price difference between BTC’s USD pair on Coinbase and its USDT pair on Binance.
Data on Coinbase, the largest crypto trading exchange, indicates U.S. trading activity. On the other hand, data on Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, indicates global trading activity.
When the price difference remains positive, it indicates stronger U.S. buying demand.
But when the price difference turns negative, it indicates Bitcoin is trading at a lower price on Coinbase. It means that U.S. traders are selling more aggressively than global traders.
This is the same conclusion that the CryptoQuant analyst reached by analyzing the CPG data.
The analyst highlighted that the selling pressure indicates American whales (large holders) had been selling their coins while the ETF market, which runs on traditional stock markets like Nasdaq, was closed over the weekend.
Bitcoin was exchanging hands at 93,024.73 at the time of writing, down more than 2% in the last 24 hours.
Related: Cardano founder predicts Bitcoin could hit $250K by 2026 — Is it realistic?
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.