Bitcoin returning to $97k is a positive signal, but not a reliable sign or indicator to confirm that bitcoin will definitely reach a new ATH.
Indeed, if people want to buy bitcoin, they should buy whenever they have money or whenever bitcoin is dumped. Those who wait for the price to drop further, hesitate to buy for fear that the price will continue to fall. They are not stupid, but they will never buy.
There is no guarantee that the market will not be dumped again, the market is affected by tariffs, geopolitics...and we cannot control those things so we cannot predict anything.
That's right, first the price hit the $95K resistance. Now it seems to have hit the $97K level. That's because people place sell orders as soon as the price approaches a round number, so I guess beating $100K will take some time. But in the meantime, as you say, on a downward bounce we don't know if the price can go lower than we expect.