The entire market seems frozen — it looks like nothing is happening, but there are dark currents beneath the surface. Bitcoin and the bulls and bears are confronting each other in a narrow space, and this situation will eventually be broken by a sharp volatility.

During Christmas, Bitcoin's performance can be described as "suffocating." The price is tightly held between $87,500 and $88,000, with daily fluctuations not exceeding 0.5%. This sideways movement has lasted for nearly two weeks, and volatility has dropped to a historic low. Market depth is ridiculously shallow — even slightly larger buy or sell orders can move the entire price.

Behind the calm appearance, there is actually fierce confrontation between the bulls and bears at critical levels. Bitcoin is now caught in a typical "liquidity vacuum." Major financial institutions and traders in Europe and America are on holiday, market participation has plummeted, and the capital depth has become thin. Open interest in the futures market is shrinking, spot trading volume has also decreased significantly, indicating that leveraged funds and active traders have temporarily stepped back.

This sideways consolidation is not because the bulls and bears have reached a balance, but because market momentum has been frozen in a near halt of trading. The price is still hovering below the key resistance level of $88,000, and the daily moving average system has already formed a bearish pattern. From this perspective, this is just a weak correction after breaking below a key support — don’t expect it to be a bottoming signal.

From a technical standpoint, Bitcoin's core volatility range has been compressed to the limit. The strong resistance above has shifted down to the $88,000 to $88,500 zone...