Santiment Warns FOMO Could Return if Bitcoin Hits $92K
Crypto analytics platform Santiment has cautioned that retail FOMO may emerge if Bitcoin climbs above $92,000.
The warning comes as Bitcoin trades close to $90,000 early in 2026, with social sentiment exhibiting its strongest bullish spike in six months regardless of modest buying and selling volumes throughout the post-holiday interval.
Brian, Santiment’s head of content material, famous throughout a January 2nd livestream that Bitcoin’s strategy towards the psychological $90,000 threshold sometimes triggers retail shopping for strain.
“Usually once we see one thing like 89.9K, there’s a little bit of a retail push to not less than hit that milestone,” he defined, including that such strikes usually precede elevated volatility as restrict sells activate and FOMO intensifies.
Mixed Signals as New Year Trading Begins
Market information reveals a posh image as 2026 opens.
Bitcoin’s social quantity remained flat, with only a 0.06% change from the earlier week, whereas Ethereum noticed a minimal enhance of 1%.
Mid-cap altcoins attracted extra consideration, with Dogecoin discussions leaping 57% and Cardano rising 19%, suggesting retail curiosity could also be shifting towards smaller property after what merchants referred to as “the massacre that was the tip of 2025.“
Santiment’s positive-versus-negative sentiment ratio for Bitcoin reached practically 2:1 on January 1st, the very best studying since early October.
This marks the strongest bullish sentiment shift in over six months, although analysts stay cautious about decoding the surge.
“I’m not essentially going to be too anxious about plenty of FOMO occurring proper now,” Brian acknowledged, noting the timing coincides with merchants coming back from holidays fairly than real conviction.
The sentiment spike seems unique to Bitcoin, with Ethereum and XRP exhibiting extra impartial readings.
Mentions of “greater or above” additionally outweighed “decrease or beneath” references, reinforcing the optimistic tone amongst retail merchants.
However, historic patterns counsel excessive bullish sentiment usually precedes corrections as markets transfer opposite to crowd expectations.
Whale Accumulation Provides Bullish Foundation
On-chain metrics paint a extra encouraging image beneath the floor noise.
Wallets holding 10 to 10,000 Bitcoin amassed roughly 65,500 BTC since November thirtieth, with 55,400 BTC added in simply the previous two weeks alone.
This represents the very best proportion of provide held by whales and sharks since November tenth.
Maxim Balashevich, Santiment’s founder and CEO, prompt the present value motion may replicate anticipation of MicroStrategy’s anticipated weekend purchases.
“There could possibly be some gamers betting on the Saylor,” he famous. “Maybe can have interaction some retail bounce to the wagon of recent 12 months shopping for would possibly work.“
The accumulation pattern contrasts with retail habits, as smaller wallets holding lower than 0.01 Bitcoin continued including to positions all through the current volatility.
This simultaneous shopping for from each whales and retail buyers creates uncertainty, as historic patterns favor rallies when massive holders accumulate whereas small merchants promote.
$BTC path into 2026 appears more and more blended
• $100K misplaced, no late-year rally
• ETFs see outflows, macro strain grows
• Whales nonetheless accumulating on dips#Bitcoin #BTC #2026https://t.co/24wCTbRK7W— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) December 22, 2025
Choppy Waters Expected Before Directional Move
Santiment analysts count on sideways buying and selling by means of the weekend earlier than clearer indicators emerge.
“We want to attend till Monday to get extra information,” Balashevich acknowledged, noting that many U.S. merchants stay on vacation till subsequent week.
He anticipates potential upside by means of Sunday, pushed by hypothesis round institutional shopping for, adopted by both draw back on Monday or continued consolidation, relying on broader market situations.
The 30-day market-to-realized-value ratio sits close to breakeven, whereas the 365-day metric exhibits long-term holders down 11.5% from October’s all-time high of $126,000.
Network development remained robust at year-end, although profit-taking spiked to six-week highs on January 2nd as merchants capitalized on the transfer towards $90,000.
Looking forward, Santiment emphasizes monitoring whether or not Bitcoin can break above $92,000 with out triggering extreme retail enthusiasm.
The platform’s information means that whereas whale accumulation supplies bullish underpinning, a FOMO-driven rally above key resistance ranges may arrange situations for a sharper correction as soon as speculative fever peaks.
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