Bitcoin price sees firm rejection at $24.5,000 as traders doubt strength
Bitcoin (BTC) returned to range resistance on August 17 due to ongoing concerns that a retracement is imminent.
No success for Bitcoin bulls
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $24,448 on Bitstamp, up 3.25% from the previous day’s low before plunging $600 in less than an hour.
Momentum picked up on the day, but the bulls faced familiar resistance at levels that have largely kept them in check since mid-June. Last week’s trips to $25,000 and beyond remained brief breakouts beyond a two-month price ceiling.
Analyzing scenario, veteran trader Peter Brandt saw a rising wedge setup underway for Bitcoin with $20,700 as a starting point.
On-chain monitoring resource Material Indicators was less convinced about the endurance of the current rally.
Uploading a snapshot of the Binance order book on August 16, captured the resistance that is now preventing Bitcoin from sealing further gains, adding that the setup “resembles previous local highs.”
“Bid liquidity is a bit thin, but that tends to change after support is lost,” further comments said.
Trader Il Capo of Crypto, meanwhile, doubled down on a forecast involving BTC/USD reaching a high of $25,500 before going significantly lower.
Fellow trader Crypto Chase flagged underwhelming BTC performance versus stocks, especially the S&P 500 since July.
“$ES has pretty much fulfilled my prediction,” he wrote:
“$BTC on the other hand is really struggling in the middle of an S&P500 (ES) only available. Even a bear like me expected a lot more from BTC. I think this speaks to how weak crypto still is and that big money absolutely prefers the S&P500 rather than crypto-atm.”
Ether retreats from $2000
On altcoins, Ether (ETH) briefly came within $50 of the $2000 mark again before reversing lower in tandem with BTC.
Related: Bitcoin Traders Expect New Yearly Lows After BTC’s $25K Rejection — Data Disagrees
The largest altcoin by market cap had been eclipsed by Dogecoin (DOGE) the previous day, DOGE/USD was up over 11% the day before cooling off.
Trader Wolf nonetheless revealed a bull flag for Ether’s moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) indicator on weekly time frames.
“There is so much disbelief in this reversal that I may raise my target from 2.5 ks to 3.2 ks,” he added in a subsequent Twitter post on the day.
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