Over the past few days, the Bitcoin price has had one of its better performances so far in the first quarter of 2026. Catalyzed by the rising geopolitical tensions between US-Isreal and Iran, the premier cryptocurrency climbed to $74,000 over the past week.

However, the Bitcoin price did not take long before retreating back below the psychological $70,000 level, confirming that the latest rally was merely a relief. With the bearish market structure still in place, it remains to be seen how low the price of BTC will go in its current phase.

$70 Million Worth Of Longs At Risk Of Liquidation

In a new post on the social media platform X, crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed why a further decline to around $54,000 in the remaining period of this phase is possible and could be bad news for both investors and the Bitcoin price. Hence, the $54,000 mark could be an extremely pivotal region for the flagship cryptocurrency in this bear market.

Martinez’s evaluation revolves around the Aggregated Liquidation Levels Heatmap metric, which visualizes price zones with high concentrations of long or short liquidations. As expected, the red (hot) color on the map signifies a concentrated liquidation point of several high-leverage positions, often with high liquidity.

These high-liquidity spots often have a somewhat magnetic effect, with prices often drawn to them. According to Martinez, this “hot” zone for the Bitcoin price lies around the $54,000 mark, with over $70 million worth of long positions at risk of liquidation.

Ordinarily, a Bitcoin price drop to around $54,000 would do extra damage to the already low market sentiment. Meanwhile, from a technical perspective, the significant liquidation cascade likely to occur at that level could lead to a phenomenon called a “Long Squeeze,” where the flagship cryptocurrency continues its decline with renewed momentum.

For clarity, a Long Squeeze typically occurs when the falling price of a cryptocurrency (in this case, Bitcoin) forces bull traders to sell their assets either to cut losses or to break even. This sell-off catalyzes the ongoing bearish reaction and sends the BTC price further downwards.

Ultimately, the $54,000 region, which is also around the realized price, appears to be one of the most critical levels for the Bitcoin price trajectory over the next few months.

Bitcoin Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at around $67,830, reflecting an over 4% decline in the past 24 hours. Since reaching its one-month high around $74,000 on Wednesday, March 4, the premier cryptocurrency has retraced by nearly 10%.

XRP is at the center of ultra-bullish calls after two crypto commentators pointed to a 2017-style fractal as the basis for a major breakout. The latest discussion started with analyst CryptoBull, who predicted that the XRP price is on track for $10 to $11 by the end of March if its price action continues to follow its 2017 structure. 

That outlook then led to a much bigger response from Remi Relief, who said his own conservative target for this cycle is four digits between $1,200 and $1,700.

CryptoBull’s Fractal Call To Double Digits

CryptoBull’s prediction is built around a familiar XRP talking point: that the cryptocurrency is tracing a structure similar to its 2017 breakout. A 2017 comparison is one of the strongest bullish narratives available for the crypto because it points to the one period in XRP’s history when price moved from relative quiet into a parabolic run in a short time period.

In his technical analysis, CryptoBull said he now believes XRP is following the 2017 fractal and that this setup could take the cryptocurrency to $10-$11 by the end of March, adding that he expected six more days sideways before a push higher.

The chart attached to that post shows XRP moving through a flat, compressed range under a horizontal resistance zone on the daily candlestick chart, with the green fractal path projecting a rally once that resistance is broken.

The structure is simple enough to explain: long consolidation, breakout through resistance, brief pause, then a vertical continuation. In other words, the chart is not presenting a slow grind upward like you might expect considering XRP’s recent price action. It is presenting a replay of XRP’s most explosive behavior back in 2017.

XRP Price Chart. Source: @CryptoBull2020 On X

Remi Relief Takes The Same Setup To An Extreme

Remi Relief took that same broad idea and pushed it far above CryptoBull’s target. In his response, he said that in 2024 he had already stated XRP would follow the 2017 run and go to $1,200 conservatively in this cycle. The move was delayed, although this is something he warned about back in June 2025 and after revising his thinking, his target range became $1,200 to $1,700.

CryptoBull’s $10 to $11 call is already a massive move from current levels, but it still sits within the realm of numbers that are possible based on XRP’s current circulating supply. A $10 price would imply a market capitalization of about $610 billion, and $11 would imply about $671 billion. On the other hand, a move to $1,200 would imply about $73.2 trillion, while $1,700 would imply about $103.7 trillion in market cap.

The real significance of these predictions may not be whether XRP actually reaches four-digit prices. It may be what they say about sentiment among XRP traders right now. At the time of writing, XRP is trading around $1.37, with an intraday range of $1.35 to $1.41. This shows that the cryptocurrency is far below the predicted price levels. However, there are many traders with an ultra-bullish bias who are still willing to rally around any setup that resembles 2017.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView

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