The reason for lateralization, for Battaglia, is a transfer of capital to treasuries.
The analyst projects that bitcoin may soon go to $150,000.
Although 2025 will go down as the year bitcoin (BTC) hit new all-time highs, some analysts warn that the market’s apparent strength is only skin deep.
Among them stands out David Battaglia, who holds that the digital asset has gone through a “covert bear market,” in which volatility shifted from the price of bitcoin to the corporate players behind it.
According to his assessment, “the last year bitcoin has been in a brutal lateral range showing behavior never seen before.”
Battaglia considers that, despite the record prices reached during the year, which have reached $126,000; the digital currency has not been in a true bull phasebut in a prolonged consolidation process.
«Bitcoin has been in bear market during 2025″, he maintains. For him, the explanation is direct: “the high volatility or extreme falls of the past were transferred to the corporate or financial vehicles that guard it.”
The analyst exemplified his thesis by pointing out the performances of companies exposed to the digital asset.
“Proof of this is Strategy, which has a 59% correction or Metaplanet, which has an 83% drop from its highs,” he said, referring to two of the most representative companies in the bitcoin treasury sector and which, since they adopted this currency, have seen explosive increases in their market shares, as CriptoNoticias has reported.
In his opinion, the above shows that the downward pressure of the cycle has not disappearedbut it has moved. “The residual volatility of the bear market is transferred to the corporate ecosystem and miners more than to the base asset,” he said, adding that bitcoin “has become a more stable store of value.”
A sign of maturity
Battaglia interprets this phenomenon as a sign of market maturity. For him, the fact that bitcoin has maintained a stable price structure, even while related assets suffered sharp declines, It is a sign of an evolution towards more predictable behavior.
Along these lines, he maintained that “treasury companies are the new high-quality altcoins, which will begin to rise more than BTC when we return to the bull market«.
The technical chart shared by Battaglia shows that the price has remained within a medium-term ascending channeldelimited by two yellow trend lines.
During the last 376 days, bitcoin has remained oscillating between a support zone close to $90,000 and a ceiling around $115,000, on average, confirming the lateral range described by Battaglia. The blue stripe on the chart represents this level of prolonged consolidation.
For the analyst, this range is not a sign of weakness, but rather part of a “silent accumulation” process. Thus, he concluded: “Bitcoin will probably exit the consolidation towards the $150,000 area to continue this slow process of stable value increase.”