Key points:
Bitcoin fails to close above $117,200, opening the door to support retests.
A giant $4.9 trillion options expiry event adds further friction for Bitcoin bulls on Friday.
Order-book liquidity shows bids massing at $110,000 and above, creating a “magnet” for price.
Bitcoin ( BTC ) missed a key daily close into Friday as traders expected short-term BTC price losses.
Bitcoin adds headwinds after daily close miss
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed that BTC/USD narrowly avoided a daily close above $117,200.
This had been one of the key lines in the sand on short timeframes — a reclaim would allow price to revisit $120,000, analysis said.
#BTC
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) September 18, 2025
Bitcoin is on the cusp of printing a Daily Close inside the Range to kickstart the reclaim process
Bitcoin is one Daily Close above ~$117.2k away from preparing for a revisit of ~$120k+ $BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/EFi4CJTpOB
“Once we gain this level the way to $120K is open in my opinion,” popular trader Crypto Caesar wrote Thursday in part of an X post on the topic alongside an explanatory chart.
“However: Last time we rejected this level and came all the way back to the light blue zone.”
Crypto investor and entrepreneur Ted Pillows predicted downward BTC price pressure continuing through the week’s options expiry event.
“$BTC failed to reclaim the $117,200 level again. Today, $4.9 trillion in US stock futures and options will expire,” he told X followers.
“Historically, this has resulted in downside volatility and consolidation in the stock market. And because the crypto market follows US stocks, volatility will shift into Bitcoin and alts too. Be prepared.”
Trader bids create $113,000 BTC price “magnet”
Other arguments in favor of lower levels focused on exchange order-book liquidity.
Related: Bitcoin price $150K target comes as analyst sees weeks to all-time highs
Updating X followers, trading resource TheKingfisher noted that most liquidity now lies below the price. The area between $110,000 and $113,000 was of particular interest.
Here's the deal, most traders are still guessing. But look at this Kingfisher heatmap for $BTC .
— TheKingfisher (@kingfisher_btc) September 19, 2025
See those dense zones around 110k and 113k? Those are long liq zones. Price is magnets to these levels, flushing out overleveraged positions.
Above current price, there are thin,… pic.twitter.com/JDYSeUFDbg
Onchain analytics platform Glassnode agreed, noting shifts in order-book composition after Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting.
There, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lowered interest rates for the first time in 2025, leading to new all-time highs for both gold and US stock markets.
“Post FOMC, we can see that $BTC shorts at 117k were taken out, and long liquidations are appearing at 112.7k,” Glassnode summarized .
