Key takeaways:

Traders expect a Bitcoin price pullback to $90,000, but a bull flag could break out to new highs if profit taking near the range highs reduces.

On-chain data suggests the current profit taking is too weak to extinguish Bitcoin’s current price momentum.

Bitcoin (BTC) price has spent the bulk of the week pinned below $104,000 to $105,000, which many analysts have labelled as a resistance zone, but an alternative view suggests that BTC is simply consolidating within a bull flag.

A bull flag is a continuation pattern that is characterized by a period of sideways price action following a sharp uptrend, and when the structure confirms or breaks from the trendline resistance, the uptrend continues. 

BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TRDR.io

While the range-bound trading portion of the flag is said to represent indecision from buyers and sellers, in this scenario, the absence of buy volume is the primary culprit. As shown in the TRDR.io chart below, Bitcoin’s explosive move to $105,900 from $74,400 was accompanied by large liquidations in the margin markets and robust spot volumes, which aligned with several days of billion-dollar spot BTC ETF inflows. 

BTC/USDT 1hr chart. Source: TRDR.io

During this three-week period, several US-based and international companies also announced plans to purchase Bitcoin and establish BTC treasuries. The spot and futures cumulative volume delta, along with the open interest metric on the chart show traders selling near the range highs and the absence of new long leverage and significantly sized spot positions being opened in this area, whereas drops to range low (bull flag support) sees bids filled on the spot side, but there is still limited use of margin for fresh longs. 

BTC/USD spot and margin CVD. Source: TRDR.io

Bitcoin’s recent cool-down phase is a normal outcome after the near 40% recovery that started on April 8, and the loss of upward momentum resulting from profit-taking in futures markets near the current range high is also to be expected. 

Bitcoin short-term holder supply profit and loss data from Glassnode supports this view, as shown in the chart below. The onchain data company highlighted profit taking for short-term traders but explained that it does not exceed the statistical norm, leaving room for further price upside. 

“Recently, the magnitude of STH Realized Profit has surged to almost +3 standard deviations above its 90-day average, reflecting a notable uptick in profit realization. In past cycles, particularly during rallies towards the ATH, this metric has historically climbed to over +5 standard deviations of more. This signals that much stronger profit-taking pressure is often required to overwhelm the inflow demand.” BTC: Short-term holder activity in profit and loss. Source: Glassnode 

Related: Bitfinex Bitcoin longs total $6.8B while shorts stand at $25M — Time for BTC to rally?

Bitcoin should test underlying support before moving higher

With the bulk of Bitcoin’s apparent sell-side liquidity absorbed during the move to $105,000, some analysts warn that a brief flush down to test $100,000 to $90,000 as support could be the next move for BTC price. 

Bitcoin market liquidity resource Material Indicators said, barring “a serious catalyst,“ […] BTC has a legit support test at $100K, and FireCharts show that the order book is priming for that with asks stacking and bids moving lower.” 

Bitcoin price liquidity heatmap. Source: Material Indicators

Sharing his view with X followers, analyst Daan Crypto Trades said that the bulk of bullish and bearish narratives with the potential to impact Bitcoin’s price action have “cleared up” and he noted that BTC price has stalled near its all-time high while stocks have continued to rally after President Trump’s US-China trade deal was confirmed. 

The analyst said that “$90K remains my long-term line in the sand for spot exposure,” adding that he is “cautiously bullish” with price above $90,000 but that is dependent upon how US equity markets perform in the short term. 

“I would not be surprised to see a short-term flush if stocks were to roll over and make a higher low somewhere. Considering most stocks moved 30% to 50% in a single month, this wouldn’t be that crazy either.” 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Crypto entrepreneurs and their families in France will receive enhanced security measures amid a recent rise in crypto-related kidnappings in the country, Politico reported.

According to the May 16 report, the measures include priority access to police emergency lines, home security assessments, and safety briefings from French law enforcement to ensure best practices are being followed.

France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau introduced the security measures as part of a broader effort to counter the recent wave of attacks.

“These repeated kidnappings of professionals in the crypto sector will be fought with specific tools, both immediate and short-term, to prevent, dissuade and hinder in order to protect the industry.”

Law enforcement officers will also undergo “anti-crypto asset laundering training,” Retailleau noted.

Retailleau met with several local leaders from the crypto industry to discuss the measures following three crypto-related kidnapping incidents in recent months.

Two kidnappings and a failed attempt in France this year

The latest incident occurred on May 13, when assailants attempted to abduct the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, CEO of the French crypto platform Paymium. Fortunately, they managed to fend off the attack, which occurred in broad daylight. 

The assailants tried to force the pair into a waiting van, but Noizat’s daughter managed to take one of the guns off an assailant and throw it away, local police said.

En plein Paris, un homme a été violenté par des individus cagoulés, habillés tout en noir. Ils tentaient de l’enlever. Un homme a surgi, extincteur à la main, pour les faire fuir. →https://t.co/P0qV6PR40v pic.twitter.com/9f4r2Gi7ho

— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) May 13, 2025

On May 3, Paris police freed the father of a crypto entrepreneur who was held for several days in connection with a 7 million euros ($7.8 million) kidnapping plot.

Related: SEC hacker sentenced to 14 months in prison

In January, the co-founder of crypto hardware wallet provider Ledger, David Balland, was abducted from his home in central France during the early hours of Jan. 21. He was held captive until a police operation on the night of Jan. 22 secured his release.

Retailleau said earlier this week that he believes the incidents were likely connected.

There have been over 150 crypto-related robbery or kidnapping incidents since 2014, with 23 of those incidents occurring in 2025 alone, according to a GitHub database maintained by Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp.

Lopp noted many of these criminals typically identify future victims through social media posts, public conversations, meetups, and conferences.

He strongly advises against peer-to-peer trades — particularly with people you don’t trust — flaunting wealth on social media and wearing crypto-branded clothing.

Magazine: Binance Wallet ‘killing’ MetaMask and airdrops, Chinese RWA tokens

Tokenization could open new opportunities for retail investors to access traditionally restricted asset classes, according to Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, who called it “very important for financial inclusion.”

Speaking at the Consensus 2025 event in Toronto, Kerbrat said that some real-world assets, such as real estate and private equity, are available only to up to 10% of the US population. “You need to be an accredited investor to invest in private equity right now,” he said.

“How many people can afford a house or an apartment in New York?” he elaborated. “But you can get a piece of it with fractionalization, through tokenization. And so we think it makes it a lot easier to be exchanged, a lot more accessible for everybody.”

Robinhood’s Johann Kerbrat at Consensus 2025. Source: Cointelegraph

Robinhood has been one of a handful of investment firms or brokerages that have explored RWA tokenization in recent months. Others include BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Apollo, and VanEck.

RWA tokenization is often touted as a means to enhance financial accessibility, with most tokenized funds currently concentrated on the private credit and US treasury markets. According to RWA.xyz on May 16, the total market capitalization of onchain RWA is $22.5 billion across just 101,457 asset holders. On average, each holder owns $221,867 in onchain assets.

Related: MultiBank, MAG, Mavryk ink world’s largest $3B RWA tokenization deal

Stablecoin evolution will create more ‘specialized’ tokens

Kerbrat also touched on stablecoins, which have emerged as a key crypto use case this cycle. “You will see 100 stablecoins,” he predicted.

Kerbrat expects a rise in stablecoins that are “more specialized in a specific market.” According to DefiLlama, dollar-pegged stablecoins dominate the stablecoin sector. The two largest, Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC), account for $211.8 billion or 87.1% of the $243.3 billion stablecoin market cap.

“If you’re trying to move funds from the US to Singapore, maybe you will use a specific stablecoin,” he said. “The shift is going to go from just stablecoin to platforms that are managing all these stablecoins.”

Tether’s USDT has seen its market share surge over the past few years. Source: DefiLlama

Fireblocks policy chief Dea Markova recently told Cointelegraph that there is a growing demand for non-dollar-pegged stablecoins. In April, the Italian finance minister warned that dollar-pegged stablecoins represent a greater risk than US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Magazine: Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi tokenization race