NEW YORK, January 7, 2026, 14:34 (EST) — Regular session
- Bitcoin down about 1.4% at $90,951, after trading as high as $93,734 on Wednesday
- Options positioning clusters around a $100,000 level for late-January expiry, data show
- Morgan Stanley’s crypto ETF filing and Friday’s U.S. payrolls report sit on traders’ radar
Bitcoin fell on Wednesday, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency down about 1.4% at $90,951. It has traded between $90,629 and $93,734 so far in the session.
The pullback lands in a week when macro data are back in charge of the tape, and bitcoin is trading with it. U.S. job openings slid in November and economists expect Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report to show another modest gain, a mix that could shape rate-cut bets and risk appetite in one go.
Derivatives markets are flashing two numbers at once. Bitcoin options open interest — outstanding contracts — has been clustered at $100,000 strike calls expiring Jan. 30, while the next-biggest cluster sits in $80,000 strike puts with the same expiry, Bloomberg reported, pointing to a market that wants upside but is still buying protection.
Institutional plumbing keeps expanding even as the spot price chops around. Morgan Stanley has filed with the U.S. SEC to launch ETFs tied to bitcoin and solana, Reuters reported, and Morningstar’s Bryan Armour said a bank entering the crypto ETF market “adds legitimacy” and could draw followers. Reuters
Equity proxies for bitcoin moved on their own catalyst. Strategy rose after MSCI shelved a plan to exclude digital-asset treasury companies from its indexes; Clear Street analyst Owen Lau said the decision “removes a material near-term technical risk” for some investors who use indexes as plumbing rather than a view. Reuters
On charts, the market is still circling a narrow fight: $90,000 support versus the $94,000–$95,000 area above. Investing.com analyst Itai Smidt flagged roughly $94,253 as a key retracement level watched by technicians and said a daily close back above it would help reopen a run at $100,000, while a break under $90,000 would shift focus toward the mid-$80,000s.
ETF flows are not giving a clean signal yet. Saxo said U.S. bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows on the latest trading day even as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust kept attracting inflows at the fund level, a split that suggests position-trimming rather than panic.
Elsewhere in crypto, ether fell about 2.6% to $3,140.42, underperforming bitcoin on the day.
But the near-term downside is not far away. Crispus Nyaga at DailyForex set $90,000 as a line that could flip the next 1–2 days of trading, with a bearish scenario calling for $88,000 if support breaks and a bullish path pointing back toward $100,000 if bitcoin clears resistance around $94,645.
Bitcoin had pushed toward $95,000 earlier this week before momentum faded, leaving traders to watch whether the market can defend the low-$90,000s into Friday’s U.S. payrolls report — and whether late-January options expiry pulls price toward the biggest strikes.
