Bitcoin flashed a short-term “buy” signal that previously marked the $49,000 and $74,000 swing lows, according to on-chain analyst Frank (@FrankAFetter), a quant at Vibe Capital Management. “Officially got the Oversold print on the short-term holder MVRV bollinger bands,” he wrote on X, pointing to prior occurrences during the “Yen Carry Unwind” around $49,000 and the “Tariff Tantrum” near $74,000, adding a third instance “Today – $108k.
The metric in focus blends the short-term holder market-value-to-realized-value (STH-MVRV) ratio with Bollinger Bands to capture when newer coins trade at statistically depressed valuations versus their cost basis. In the chart Frank shared, the STH-MVRV Bollinger oscillator probed the oversold threshold that previously aligned with local exhaustion of selling.
More Reasons To Be Bullish For Bitcoin
On a companion panel, the STH-SOPR gauge—spent-output profit ratio for coins younger than roughly 155 days—remains below 1.0, signaling that recent buyers are realizing losses into the tape rather than profits. “Short-term holders (top buyers) are in pain & realizing losses,” Frank noted, emphasizing that “STH-SOPR is not high!”
Positioning has also turned cleaner in derivatives. “Longs got ‘delevered’ every day last week—that’s seven straight days of magic blue dots,” he said, describing persistent long liquidations and balance-sheet shrinkage among leveraged bulls. He is now “watching for the flip: when they give up and start shorting with leverage (exactly at the wrong time), providing fuel for a potential relief squeeze.”
Macro context may be additive, in his view. “Gold hit new highs last week. ‘Gold leads, bitcoin follows.’ The yellow metal often looks around corners, and it might be sniffing out the debasement trade headed into 2026 as the administration stokes the economy for mid-terms,” he wrote, suggesting a potential catch-up dynamic if Bitcoin lags the move in bullion.
Risk markers remain clearly defined. Frank pegs the short-term holder realized price—an aggregate cost basis for recent coins—at $108,800. “If BTC breaks down below the short-term holder cost basis of $108.8k, it may want to investigate demand at the 200-day moving average, which sits at $101k.”
That layered support map frames the oversold print as a tactical signal inside a still-intact longer-term uptrend, but it also acknowledges that violations of STH cost basis can extend tests toward the cycle’s primary trend gauge.
Taken together, the confluence of these signals presents a strong confluence, according to Frank. Whether history rhymes again will hinge on spot demand emerging above short-term cost basis and on whether any shift toward aggressive shorting provides the fuel for a squeeze. As Frank summarized, “If we are in a bull market—and I believe we are—this is the kind of behavior that typically sets the stage for the next leg higher.”
At press time, BTC traded at $111,382.
