Why is it that when Bitcoin breaks through 80k, very few people are still calling for a “bull run”?

During the May Day holiday, Bitcoin briefly broke through the 81k level, reaching the highest level since January 31, and chalked up six straight days of gains, with a cumulative rise of about 8% over six days.

But the quality of this upswing still falls short of a typical crypto bull market.

First, one of the important forces driving the rally is short covering. As Bitcoin broke through the 80k level, about $270 million in short positions were liquidated. This means a sizable portion of the rise came from a squeeze of positions, rather than being entirely driven by continuous buying of new capital.

Second, capital inflows are steady but not strong. Data shows that the latest week’s net inflow into digital asset investment products was about $117.8 million. Although it marks the fifth consecutive week of inflows, the scale is not large. In the same period, total AUM (assets under management) for digital asset products was about $155 billion, still below the roughly $263 billion level from around October last year.

Third, institutional capital is still highly concentrated in Bitcoin. Bitcoin ETF fund flows have improved, but the capital performance of other assets such as ETH, Solana, and XRP has been relatively weaker.

That’s why many investors feel that “Bitcoin is up, but the market has little enthusiasm.” Prices are rising, but you don’t see the familiar bull-market signals: altcoins are not broadly rallying, on-chain transaction fees are not surging, new project financing is not hot, retail FOMO is not showing up, and exchange-ranking apps are not making a push up the charts. None of these have come back yet. $BTC