Bitcoin Liquidation Heatmap Post FOMC, we can see that $BTC shorts at 117k were taken out, and long liquidations are appearing at 112.7k. 🔗glassno.de/4px5Zwi
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Bitcoin price struggles to reclaim $117K despite macro catalysts, ASTER up 670%
Sep, 20, 2025
8 min read
by Rony Roy
for Invezz
This week, Bitcoin initially rose on optimism surrounding a potential Fed rate cut, but buying momentum stalled below the $117,000 resistance. Profit-taking followed, leading to a pullback and retest of the $116,000 support on Friday.
Total crypto market capitalization dropped from its weekly peak due to Bitcoin’s limited upside after the 0.25% rate cut.
Despite this, the market cap was still up 1.47% at $4.15 trillion at press time.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remained in the neutral range, holding at 52 during late Asian hours on Sep. 19, indicating balanced sentiment with no clear bullish or bearish bias.
Altcoin activity stayed largely subdued during the week. Only a few tokens registered notable gains, while most others moved within narrow ranges with low volume.
Why is Bitcoin price not going up?
Bitcoin traded between a $116,111 – $117,888 range this week, briefly spiking after the Fed’s quarter-point rate cut, its first since December 2024, which lowered the target rate to around 4.1%.
That initial push was expected, given how crypto markets typically respond positively to signs of looser monetary policy.
But after the initial reaction, the rally quickly lost steam.
One reason could be that the move was already priced in. Analysts like Coin Bureau’s Nic Puckrin cautioned that with sentiment already high, markets were vulnerable to a “sell the news” event.
That’s largely what played out. Traders began booking profits, and Bitcoin pulled back below the $117,000 level.
This kind of behavior is common around major macro events, where speculative bets build up ahead of the announcement and unwind once it’s official.
Looking at the derivatives market adds more clarity.
Bitcoin open interest dropped 1.87% over the last 24 hours to $40.7 billion, with most of the outflow coming from perpetual contracts, which saw a 2.13% decline.
Basically, this means that traders who were riding short-term momentum have started closing positions.
On the other hand, futures open interest rose by 2.51% in the past 24 hours leading up to late Friday, indicating a shift toward more structured bets over a longer horizon, possibly by institutional players.
Simultaneously, a total of $22.1 million in Bitcoin positions were wiped out during the same timeframe, with long liquidations making up the bulk at $18.4 million.
Overleveraged long traders were likely caught off guard by the lack of follow-through above $117k.
Short liquidations were minimal by comparison, at just $3.8 million, meaning bears haven’t been squeezed out either.
Another factor pressuring BTC this week is the $4.9 trillion worth of US stock options and futures set to expire Friday.
These quarterly expiries often trigger volatility and position reshuffling across equities, and since crypto tends to mirror stock market behavior during such macro events, Bitcoin is seeing some of that spillover effect too.
However, even as Bitcoin had almost wiped all of its weekly gains by late Friday, positive sentiment from traditional markets began to re-emerge.
News of trade talks between Trump and Xi, along with fresh momentum around the TikTok deal, gave US equities a lift.
The Dow rose by 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both edged higher. With Nvidia and other tech stocks rallying, the broader indices approached levels that could open the door to further highs.
If this strength in equities carries into next week and volatility from the options expiry clears, it could act as a tailwind for crypto.
Bitcoin often lags behind these risk-on shifts initially but tends to catch up quickly once market confidence rebuilds.
Should the current macro tone stabilize, especially if US–China relations cool off and rate cut optimism remains, this setup may give crypto bulls room to reclaim control, particularly if BTC can hold $116k and flip $117k into solid support.
What’s next for Bitcoin?
On the 7-day liquidation heatmap, clear zones have emerged that give a sense of where Bitcoin is likely to react next.
Bitcoin 7-day liquidation heatmap. Source: Coinglass.
On the upside, there’s a dense band of liquidation pressure just under $118,000, particularly between $117,600 and $117,900.
That region lit up with bright yellow on the chart, signaling a heavy cluster of short positions that could get squeezed if bulls manage to push through, making it a key short-term resistance zone.
On the downside, the most notable liquidation support appears around $114,000 to $114,500, where the heatmap shows several stacked bands of long liquidations.
If BTC breaks below $116k with volume, this is the area where buyers are likely to step in first.
A deeper flush could take it as low as $111,000, where another liquidation cluster is visible, but for now, the main range to watch sits between $114k and $118k.
Other arguments in favor of lower levels have pointed to where liquidity is currently stacked in the order books.
According to trading intelligence platform TheKingfisher, most of the liquidity has now shifted below Bitcoin’s current price, with the densest zones sitting around $110,000 to $113,000.
Bitcoin liquidation heatmap. Source: TheKingfisher
These are long liquidation pockets, areas where whales may drive price toward in order to flush out overleveraged longs.
When liquidity builds up like this below price, it can act like a magnet, especially in thin or indecisive market conditions.
Glassnode echoed this sentiment, noting that following Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, the structure of order books changed significantly.
As per the on-chain firm, short positions around $117k were already taken out, leaving fewer obstacles on the upside, while fresh long liquidations have started appearing near $112.7k.
The implication here is that the market may be setting up for a deeper sweep into those lower liquidity zones before any meaningful bounce occurs.
In short, despite the macro backdrop looking favorable, the current liquidity map suggests that Bitcoin could first dip into pain zones around $110k–113k before a stronger recovery attempt.
For Bitcoin to resume its upside rally and potentially move toward all-time highs, analysts stress that it must reclaim footing above $117k on a daily close.
So far, BTC has come close, with price narrowly missing a close above $117,200, which traders identify as a critical short-term trigger.
Holding above that level would signal strength and open the way for a retest of the $120,000 zone.
Market watchers like Rekt Capital argue that a daily close above $117.2k would kickstart what they call the “reclaim process,” creating room for BTC to extend higher.
Similarly, Crypto Caesar pointed out that once this level is secured, the path to $120k looks relatively clear.
BTC/USDT 1-day price chart. Source: Crypto Ceaser on X.
However, he also cautioned that the last time Bitcoin rejected this area, it pulled all the way back into the lower demand zones around $113k–114k.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $115,922, with gains of just 0.6% in the past 7 days.
Altcoin market recap
For altcoins, price action was largely subdued this week, with most tokens taking their cue from Bitcoin’s movements.
The total altcoin market cap slipped around 1% to $1.85 trillion, even as the Altcoin Season Index continued to signal “alt season” at 75, though that was down two points from the previous day.
Much of the momentum came from smaller-cap tokens, while top altcoins showed little to no strength on the weekly chart.
Ethereum fell 1.6%, and other leading names like XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE) posted losses ranging from 1% to 6%.
The week’s top gainers were led by Aster (ASTER), which surged more than 670%, making it the standout performer.
Immutable (IMX) followed with gains of 47.38%, while Pump.fun (PUMP) also advanced, climbing a little over 20%.
Top altcoin gainers of the week. Source: CoinMarketCap.
Aster: Aster’s late-week rally came on the back of an airdrop announcement and a timely mention from former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The project confirmed it would distribute roughly 704 million tokens, about 8.8% of its total supply, to eligible participants as part of its token generation event, following which it also went live for spot trading on several centralised exchanges.
Beyond the hype, Aster’s fundamentals also gave investors reason to pay attention.
Its perpetual futures platform has seen steady growth, handling over $12 billion in trading volume this month, up from $9.78 billion in August and $8.5 billion in July, according to DeFi Llama.
Immutable: For IMX, this week’s gains were fueled by the launch of its new mobile gaming division, a natural next step for the project, which has already built partnerships with major players in the industry, including Ubisoft and Netmarble, among others.
Pump.fun: It has been a wild month for PUMP, which is currently up over 137% on the monthly time frame.
This week, PUMP’s gains were driven by its ongoing token buyback program, which began in early July and has already seen the project purchase more than $95 million worth of PUMP tokens.
Investor spirits were also lifter after Pump.fun reactivated livestreaming on its platform for all users following months of suspension, sparking a fresh wave of trading activity around the token.
The post Bitcoin price struggles to reclaim $117K despite macro catalysts, ASTER up 670% appeared first on Invezz
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Bitcoin price struggles to reclaim $117K despite macro catalysts, ASTER up 670%
Sep, 20, 2025
8 min read
by Rony Roy
for Invezz
This week, Bitcoin initially rose on optimism surrounding a potential Fed rate cut, but buying momentum stalled below the $117,000 resistance. Profit-taking followed, leading to a pullback and retest of the $116,000 support on Friday.
Total crypto market capitalization dropped from its weekly peak due to Bitcoin’s limited upside after the 0.25% rate cut.
Despite this, the market cap was still up 1.47% at $4.15 trillion at press time.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remained in the neutral range, holding at 52 during late Asian hours on Sep. 19, indicating balanced sentiment with no clear bullish or bearish bias.
Altcoin activity stayed largely subdued during the week. Only a few tokens registered notable gains, while most others moved within narrow ranges with low volume.
Why is Bitcoin price not going up?
Bitcoin traded between a $116,111 – $117,888 range this week, briefly spiking after the Fed’s quarter-point rate cut, its first since December 2024, which lowered the target rate to around 4.1%.
That initial push was expected, given how crypto markets typically respond positively to signs of looser monetary policy.
But after the initial reaction, the rally quickly lost steam.
One reason could be that the move was already priced in. Analysts like Coin Bureau’s Nic Puckrin cautioned that with sentiment already high, markets were vulnerable to a “sell the news” event.
That’s largely what played out. Traders began booking profits, and Bitcoin pulled back below the $117,000 level.
This kind of behavior is common around major macro events, where speculative bets build up ahead of the announcement and unwind once it’s official.
Looking at the derivatives market adds more clarity.
Bitcoin open interest dropped 1.87% over the last 24 hours to $40.7 billion, with most of the outflow coming from perpetual contracts, which saw a 2.13% decline.
Basically, this means that traders who were riding short-term momentum have started closing positions.
On the other hand, futures open interest rose by 2.51% in the past 24 hours leading up to late Friday, indicating a shift toward more structured bets over a longer horizon, possibly by institutional players.
Simultaneously, a total of $22.1 million in Bitcoin positions were wiped out during the same timeframe, with long liquidations making up the bulk at $18.4 million.
Overleveraged long traders were likely caught off guard by the lack of follow-through above $117k.
Short liquidations were minimal by comparison, at just $3.8 million, meaning bears haven’t been squeezed out either.
Another factor pressuring BTC this week is the $4.9 trillion worth of US stock options and futures set to expire Friday.
These quarterly expiries often trigger volatility and position reshuffling across equities, and since crypto tends to mirror stock market behavior during such macro events, Bitcoin is seeing some of that spillover effect too.
However, even as Bitcoin had almost wiped all of its weekly gains by late Friday, positive sentiment from traditional markets began to re-emerge.
News of trade talks between Trump and Xi, along with fresh momentum around the TikTok deal, gave US equities a lift.
The Dow rose by 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both edged higher. With Nvidia and other tech stocks rallying, the broader indices approached levels that could open the door to further highs.
If this strength in equities carries into next week and volatility from the options expiry clears, it could act as a tailwind for crypto.
Bitcoin often lags behind these risk-on shifts initially but tends to catch up quickly once market confidence rebuilds.
Should the current macro tone stabilize, especially if US–China relations cool off and rate cut optimism remains, this setup may give crypto bulls room to reclaim control, particularly if BTC can hold $116k and flip $117k into solid support.
What’s next for Bitcoin?
On the 7-day liquidation heatmap, clear zones have emerged that give a sense of where Bitcoin is likely to react next.
Bitcoin 7-day liquidation heatmap. Source: Coinglass.
On the upside, there’s a dense band of liquidation pressure just under $118,000, particularly between $117,600 and $117,900.
That region lit up with bright yellow on the chart, signaling a heavy cluster of short positions that could get squeezed if bulls manage to push through, making it a key short-term resistance zone.
On the downside, the most notable liquidation support appears around $114,000 to $114,500, where the heatmap shows several stacked bands of long liquidations.
If BTC breaks below $116k with volume, this is the area where buyers are likely to step in first.
A deeper flush could take it as low as $111,000, where another liquidation cluster is visible, but for now, the main range to watch sits between $114k and $118k.
Other arguments in favor of lower levels have pointed to where liquidity is currently stacked in the order books.
According to trading intelligence platform TheKingfisher, most of the liquidity has now shifted below Bitcoin’s current price, with the densest zones sitting around $110,000 to $113,000.
Bitcoin liquidation heatmap. Source: TheKingfisher
These are long liquidation pockets, areas where whales may drive price toward in order to flush out overleveraged longs.
When liquidity builds up like this below price, it can act like a magnet, especially in thin or indecisive market conditions.
Glassnode echoed this sentiment, noting that following Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, the structure of order books changed significantly.
Bitcoin Liquidation Heatmap Post FOMC, we can see that $BTC shorts at 117k were taken out, and long liquidations are appearing at 112.7k. 🔗glassno.de/4px5Zwi
As per the on-chain firm, short positions around $117k were already taken out, leaving fewer obstacles on the upside, while fresh long liquidations have started appearing near $112.7k.
The implication here is that the market may be setting up for a deeper sweep into those lower liquidity zones before any meaningful bounce occurs.
In short, despite the macro backdrop looking favorable, the current liquidity map suggests that Bitcoin could first dip into pain zones around $110k–113k before a stronger recovery attempt.
For Bitcoin to resume its upside rally and potentially move toward all-time highs, analysts stress that it must reclaim footing above $117k on a daily close.
So far, BTC has come close, with price narrowly missing a close above $117,200, which traders identify as a critical short-term trigger.
Holding above that level would signal strength and open the way for a retest of the $120,000 zone.
Market watchers like Rekt Capital argue that a daily close above $117.2k would kickstart what they call the “reclaim process,” creating room for BTC to extend higher.
Similarly, Crypto Caesar pointed out that once this level is secured, the path to $120k looks relatively clear.
BTC/USDT 1-day price chart. Source: Crypto Ceaser on X.
However, he also cautioned that the last time Bitcoin rejected this area, it pulled all the way back into the lower demand zones around $113k–114k.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $115,922, with gains of just 0.6% in the past 7 days.
Altcoin market recap
For altcoins, price action was largely subdued this week, with most tokens taking their cue from Bitcoin’s movements.
The total altcoin market cap slipped around 1% to $1.85 trillion, even as the Altcoin Season Index continued to signal “alt season” at 75, though that was down two points from the previous day.
Much of the momentum came from smaller-cap tokens, while top altcoins showed little to no strength on the weekly chart.
Ethereum fell 1.6%, and other leading names like XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE) posted losses ranging from 1% to 6%.
The week’s top gainers were led by Aster (ASTER), which surged more than 670%, making it the standout performer.
Immutable (IMX) followed with gains of 47.38%, while Pump.fun (PUMP) also advanced, climbing a little over 20%.
Top altcoin gainers of the week. Source: CoinMarketCap.
Aster: Aster’s late-week rally came on the back of an airdrop announcement and a timely mention from former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The project confirmed it would distribute roughly 704 million tokens, about 8.8% of its total supply, to eligible participants as part of its token generation event, following which it also went live for spot trading on several centralised exchanges.
Beyond the hype, Aster’s fundamentals also gave investors reason to pay attention.
Its perpetual futures platform has seen steady growth, handling over $12 billion in trading volume this month, up from $9.78 billion in August and $8.5 billion in July, according to DeFi Llama.
Immutable: For IMX, this week’s gains were fueled by the launch of its new mobile gaming division, a natural next step for the project, which has already built partnerships with major players in the industry, including Ubisoft and Netmarble, among others.
Pump.fun: It has been a wild month for PUMP, which is currently up over 137% on the monthly time frame.
This week, PUMP’s gains were driven by its ongoing token buyback program, which began in early July and has already seen the project purchase more than $95 million worth of PUMP tokens.
Investor spirits were also lifter after Pump.fun reactivated livestreaming on its platform for all users following months of suspension, sparking a fresh wave of trading activity around the token.
The post Bitcoin price struggles to reclaim $117K despite macro catalysts, ASTER up 670% appeared first on Invezz
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