Recently, there has been an interesting phenomenon—early 2026, Bitcoin saw over $1.2 billion in new funds flowing in, yet the price kept oscillating between $87,000 and $90,000, without any clear breakthrough.

Many people are puzzled: money is coming in, so why is the price still like this? Actually, the underlying logic is as follows. When a large amount of funds buy Bitcoin through spot ETFs, institutional investors and trading firms will simultaneously sell in the futures or options markets to hedge risk—that is, they are receiving new funds on one hand, while quietly shorting to balance their positions.

As a result, the ETF buying pressure is offset by the institutional selling. On the surface, it looks like the market has ample funds, but what truly drives the price is the net demand after this increase and decrease. Therefore, to judge Bitcoin's future trend, one should not only look at the scale of capital inflows but also consider how strong the actual market demand is after deducting hedging trades.