Bitcoin buyers target $100,000 by the end January. Here’s six reasons to be bullish

Traders have the six-digit target in their sights for Bitcoin by the end of the month.
Bitcoin ETFs kick off 2026 with over $1 billion in gains.
The top crypto is lagging behind stocks and gold.

Bitcoin traders bet that the top crypto will hit $100,000 by the end of January, according to data from Coinbase’s Deribit derivatives exchange.

Open interest, a measure of outstanding contracts, is heavily skewed toward options expiring on January 30 with a $100,000 strike price.

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and chief investment officer at Maelstrom, said in December that he expects Bitcoin to get even higher and hit $200,000 by March. That would double the cryptocurrency’s market value to just over $4 trillion.

Bitcoin price.

The price still has some ways to go before hitting those estimates.

Bitcoin buyers’ bullish positioning comes after Bitcoin surged 7% in the first week of 2026. It traded just above $94,000 at time on Monday.

Geopolitical fallout from the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday failed to dent market appetite for crypto or stocks, while pushing the price of gold higher.

Here are six reasons for Bitcoin buyers to be bullish, according to analysts.

Gold catch-up trade

Bitcoin is often described as digital gold. The comparison stems from the idea that Bitcoin, like the precious metal, can function as a safe-haven and store-of-value asset.

“Bitcoin’s rally up to $94,000 since the start of the year looks like it may be a catch-up trade versus gold after materially lagging through 2025,” Mark Pilipczuk, research analyst at CF Benchmarks told DL News.

Gold has been one of the best performing assets over the past year, posting a 68% gain.

Attractive pricing

Bitcoin’s price is down 25% from its all time high of just over $126,000, set back in October, and that makes it an attractive buy for many investors, Pilipczuk said.

The positive price action over the past few days could be a rally that puts Bitcoin back onto its upward trend, he said.

Pretty macro picture

Macroeconomic tailwinds also fuel Bitcoin’s positive price action, according to Pilipczuk.

Key upcoming events include the appointment of a new Federal Reserve chair and fresh economic data. These events could reduce interest rates further, Pilipczuk said.

Lower interest rates tend to push up the prices of riskier assets like Bitcoin by disincentivising investors to hold bonds.

The CME FedWatch tool shows that the Fed is likely to hold interest rates at their current level during the next Open Market Committee meeting on January 28.

Fed adds $40 billion

Hayes’ argument that Bitcoin will hit $200,000 by March hinges on the Fed’s plan to buy $40 billion of government debt each month.

This, he argued, essentially amounts to the central bank printing new money.

Once investors realise that this pretty much amounts to quantitative easing, then Hayes said it’s only a matter of time before Bitcoin’s price skyrockets.

Regulatory clarity

Bitcoin’s price will hit $150,000 by the end of 2026, according to Katherine Dowling, president of the Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company.

In December, she toldDL News that the positive regulatory groundwork done in the US in 2025 will catapult the price higher this year.

These moves include the signing of a landmark stablecoin bill into law, regulators adopting a light-touch approach to policing the sector, and the potential of more crypto laws being approved in 2026.

“I am bullish on Bitcoin in 2026,” Dowling told DL News.

Institutional buy-in

Dowling also said she expected institutions to keep pumping their money into the industry through things like crypto exchange-traded funds and digital asset treasuries.

Buyers bought over $1 billion worth of positions in US spot Bitcoin ETFs in inflows in the first week of January, a positive u-turn from the heavy selling seen at the end of 2025.