Bitcoin is still in a sideways consolidation range. This sideways movement is meant to accumulate more liquidity for the next leg down.

Compared with three months ago, the liquidity in Bitcoin’s downtrend has clearly increased. The first major liquidity cluster appears around 54k, and the second major liquidity cluster appears around 45k.

Only when most of the market believes that the current Bitcoin price can establish long-term long positions will these liquidity-filled areas be liquidated. Currently, market makers are continuously trying to make retail investors believe that 60k is the bottom for this round.

For trend traders, only a move from 82.5k down to 60k would excite me. But for the vast majority of retail investors, they want the market to have violent fluctuations every day—they hope to make profits from the market every day.

Due to the current low volatility in the market, retail investors will get bored with the uneventful action, and then use higher leverage to do short-term trading—this also provides better liquidation opportunities for market makers.

The current sideways consolidation is neither the bottom nor an accumulation zone for market makers and big whales. It is simply a consolidation-and-rest area within a declining market. It can also be understood as the fact that the liquidity below is currently not enough for market makers to push prices even lower, so they need to “nurture” some long exposure through this sideways consolidation.