It has been a tough period for Bitcoin. Prices have been between $60,000 and $70,000 for weeks, and a brief dip below $67,000 on Thursday did little to ease investors’ nerves.
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Now a handful of analysts say the worst of the selling may finally be over – although what comes next is far from exciting.
No crash, no boom – just patience
Crypto analyst Willy Woo put it clearly on X. The wave of bearish selling by investors “seems to have happened exhaustedhe said, giving Bitcoin some breathing room to trade flat in the coming weeks.
A small rebound towards the mid-$70,000s is possible. But Woo was clear: This kind of move would almost certainly be pushed back before it could gain any real footing.
His best guess for when the bearish trend will actually end is the fourth quarter of 2026. A true bull run likely won’t return until the first or second quarter of 2027, he said.
This bearish sell-off by investors appears to have been exhausted, giving price a reprieve to perhaps consolidate sideways for a month, and even a recovery to the mid-70s, which will likely be rejected.
This is because the broader regime is heavily bearish on both spot and futures… pic.twitter.com/MAUlmBJtbE
— Willy Woo (@willywoo) February 27, 2026
In other words, the wait is measured in quarters – not weeks.
Woo also highlighted something that doesn’t appear on Bitcoin’s price chart. At the same time, liquidity in the spot and futures markets is deteriorating.
That combination, he said, has historically never produced a real Bitcoin rally. Until one or both of these conditions improve, any upward movement is likely to be temporary.
Why did Bitcoin fall in the first place?
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan had a clear answer to that question. Forget the theories about market manipulation or the fear that quantum computing will break crypto-encryption.
According to Hougan, the explanation is simple: people who owned Bitcoin sold it. Some followed the four-year market cycle. Others made money to finance investments in AI companies.
Some had no specific reason other than wanting out. “They are mostly done selling, and we are in rock bottom,” he wrote on X.
The conspiracy theories are wild. First it was Binance and then it was Wintermute and then it was an unknown offshore macro hedge fund and then it was paper bitcoin and. today it’s Jane Street and next week it will be someone else.
The real reason Bitcoin is falling in value is because…
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) February 26, 2026
Spring will come
There will be new record highs, he added. “This is a classic crypto winter and there will be a classic crypto spring.”
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For now, Woo’s analysis offers the most grounded view of the state of affairs. Sales have slowed. The market is catching its breath. But with liquidity still weak and no clear catalyst on the horizon,
Bitcoin’s path forward looks less like a comeback and more like a long, uneventful wait — a path that, by its own estimation, won’t end until the closing months of 2026 at the earliest.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView