Analysis: Tariff comments triggered $850 million in long liquidation, with $90,000 becoming a key support level for Bitcoin.

Wintermute's latest market analysis points out that, driven by the continued inflow of funds into ETFs and the marginal easing of inflation data, Bitcoin recently broke through the key resistance level of $95,000 and even reached a high of around $98,000. However, market sentiment suddenly changed on Monday when Trump announced additional tariffs on some European countries, causing a collective downturn in risk assets, and Bitcoin subsequently experienced a rapid pullback. Data shows that this news triggered the passive liquidation of approximately $850 million in long positions, and the price of BTC fell back to around $92,000 in a short period of time. Wintermute believes that the previous rise was mainly driven by three factors: firstly, a significant inflow of funds into spot ETFs, with a net inflow of $760 million on Tuesday alone and a cumulative inflow of approximately $1.4 billion for the whole week; secondly, positive inflation data, with the US core CPI year-on-year increase falling to 2.6%, a new low since March 2021; and thirdly, the catch-up trading logic of Bitcoin relative to hard assets such as gold gradually materialized. Despite the large-scale liquidation during the pullback, the report points out that market leverage was cleared quickly without a chain reaction of sell-offs or a liquidity crisis, making it more of a healthy technical correction than a trend reversal. Looking ahead to this week, investors will focus on the Davos World Economic Forum, the EU emergency summit, and Friday's core PCE inflation data. Wintermute believes that as long as Bitcoin's price remains firmly above $90,000 and ETF inflows remain positive, the upward structure is likely to continue; however, if this support level is breached, a return to the range-bound trading pattern since November of last year cannot be ruled out. Overall, the report believes that the current market buying base remains solid, with short-term uncertainty mainly stemming from whether tariff-related statements will be further implemented. Based on current pricing, the market tends to view this as temporary "political noise" rather than a systemic risk.