Here’s what’s stopping Bitcoin’s price from surging past $82K on the charts

Bitcoin’s [BTC] price may have briefly surged past $82,000 a few weeks ago. However, it has since failed to surpass this level. Instead, it has been trading within a sideways range between $76,000 and $82,000.

This is happening despite the presence of spot demand. Here’s why BTC is stuck in this range and whether it can decisively break above $82K.

Bitcoin’s demand vs. heavy supply cluster

The spot demand for Bitcoin is coming from strong ETF inflows and large investors. For instance, the U.S Spot Bitcoin ETFs posted the strongest three-week stretch of 2026 after last week’s $986 million. This took the total net inflows to $3.80 billion.

Furthermore, Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive purchased 1,375 BTC worth $105 million. They could increase this position to 20K BTC before the end of the year.

The derivatives market also contributed to BTC’s recovery as Binance’s Open Interest hit a six-month peak of $10 billion.

However, buyers and sellers have been battling for control in the $76K-$82K range, which is one of the strongest supply zones. This level is a key demand zone, with 35% of BTC’s supply bought at this level or higher.

This heavy supply also came from the weekly average exchange net inflows, which increased by more than 593 BTC. Thus, Binance’s BTC reserves have remained high, roughly 685K–687K BTC, indicating that the spot demand may be relatively low.