Bitcoin battles whales above $22K as BTC price faces US CPI data
Bitcoin (BTC) continued to battle major resistance on September 13 as markets braced for US inflation numbers.
“Serious” whales present new BTC price barrier
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as it attempted to push through $22,500.
Bulls had been trying to overcome a wall of selling interest in the area just above $22,000, this proved particularly stubborn and led to a consolidation phase overnight.
On-chain monitoring resource Material Indicators highlighted the struggle in a screenshot of the Binance BTC/USD order book the previous day.
Let’s see if they are hungry enough to eat $13 million #BTC ask liquidity.#FireCharts pic.twitter.com/GY3giu7Mh8
— Material Indicators (@MI_Algos) 12 September 2022
For other analytical platform Whalemap, meanwhile, it was no wonder that the current range was a sticking point for bulls.
“The New Range to Watch: $22,780 – $23,400,” The Whalemap Team told Twitter followers.
“This one is serious BUT is the last one in our current 19k – 25k range.”
An accompanying chart showed the extent to which high-volume wallets had accumulated at various levels in the past. Resistance close to the spot price was thus almost guaranteed.
As Cointelegraph reported, these clusters of whale activity had effectively sealed the recent BTC price bottom.
Analyzing the situation further, popular trader Crypto Ed remained confident that a price correction would now come in, but noted that spot buyer interest nonetheless remained.
#BTC a correction down would certainly make sense (small CME gap), but check how spot continues to buy this (white indicator). pic.twitter.com/XbXATe8W8I
— Ed_NL (@Crypto_Ed_NL) 13 September 2022
In a previous update, Crypto Ed had given a potential downside target of $20,800.
CPI settlements are due in hours
For Michaël van de Poppe, CEO and founder of trading company Eight, the day was still about the US consumer price index (CPI) for August.
Related: The Fed, the Merge and $22K BTC – 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
Poised to confirm the ongoing trend of easing inflation, the CPI promised volatility across risk assets around the reveal date, slated for 8:30 a.m. ET.
“Today is the big day on the CPI. The expectation is that month-over-month will be -0.1% and year-over-year 8.1%,” Van de Poppe explained.
“If it’s going to be higher than these numbers, we’re likely to see a strong negative reaction to risk. If it’s lower -> positive reaction. Simple.”
The US dollar index (DXY), a key driver of risk-asset downside, stabilized the decline of the past few days, trying to preserve 108 as support.
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