Bitcoin's Strong Performance in Early 2025 to 2026 Analyzed

K33 Research's Head of Research, Vetle Lunde, released an analysis report on February 26. According to BlockBeats, the report highlights that between January 2025 and February 2026, Bitcoin's average minute return at 10:00 is within the top 25% of the day. Despite negative returns at 10:00 over the past four months, there are still 34 minutes throughout the day with worse performance. Lunde notes that Bitcoin's volatility peaks around the release of U.S. macroeconomic data and the opening of the U.S. stock market (09:31–09:37). This is attributed to the close linkage between market microstructure and U.S. equities, rather than targeted manipulation at specific times. If one were to consider significant market movements, the performance at non-whole minutes like 10:12 and 09:41 is more noteworthy. The widely discussed "Jane Street 10 o'clock sell-off" lacks data support.