Heading into the weekend, Bitcoin’s price was unable to maintain the bullish momentum it showed early last week. As of Friday, January 16, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, rejected by the above price resistance, is currently trading in a tight consolidation range. Interestingly, this period of silence was deemed to be fleeting as the latest on-chain data suggests that an thrilling time is ahead for the BTC price.

Premium kimchi increases in value as local demand increases

In a January 17 post on X, DeFi asset management platform XWIN Finance released on-chain report that suggests Bitcoin may be closer to reaching a turning point than its price action indicates.

This hypothesis is based on the Bitcoin Kimchi Premium indicator. It measures the percentage difference between the price of a cryptocurrency (in this case Bitcoin) on South Korean exchanges and its price on global exchanges. Simply put, it shows how much more Korean traders are willing to pay for Bitcoin.

When the kimchi premium consistently moves from low or negative levels to above historically significant levels, it is usually viewed as a long signal on the metric. This interpretation is based on the fact that the rising price of Kimchi Premium reflects increasing local demand in South Korea, which is usually heavily influenced by retail buyers.

Essentially, Korean buyers are willing to pay more for Bitcoin, thereby overwhelming the available supply and consequently pushing prices higher.

In a post on X, XWIN Finance highlighted that this long signal was noticed on the indicator. History also confirms the bullish significance of this signal; There have been major upward price movements following continued increases in Kimchi Premium.

An example is the last observation of a long signal in October 2023, when the index rose above the main threshold, as shown in the chart above. Bitcoin price surged 370% after this signal sounded in 2023.

According to XWIN Research, it seems that the same pattern will repeat in 2026. Therefore, if Kimchi Premium completes a long signal formation, it could mean that buyers are taking favorable positions for a bullish trend.

If history repeats itself, Bitcoin’s price could be on track for another thrilling ride, with the flagship cryptocurrency likely to surge more than 300% in the next cycle.

However, it is worth noting that macro conditions, institutional demand and derivatives activity would all play their part in making the pattern more credible as it should not be viewed as a standalone bullish sign.

Bitcoin price at a glance

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at around $95,280, which does not reflect any significant changes in the last 24 hours.

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView