Bitcoin holiday sale-off pushed bulls out of the market

Bitcoin’s recent forays into price territory above $4,000 have been beaten back over the holiday, putting the bulls under pressure to regain momentum. The cryptocurrency had peaked to around $4,140 on Dec. 21, then to over $4,200 on Dec. 24, but dropped sharply back to around $3,720 early yesterday. A small bullish bounce since has now subsided and, at press time, bitcoin is changing hands at $3,762, as per CoinDesk data.

FxPro analyst said that the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization now looks to be consolidating under a lower low, potentially building momentum for another push above $4,000 should buy pressure persist above two key resistance levels.

Given its recent price action and a revisit to intra-day support levels seen at $3,675, bitcoin looks weakened, having fallen victim to an early holiday sell-off. In our previous article, we discussed a possible visitation to resistance (R2 on chart) at $4,400, based on the measured Fibonacci extension taken on the daily chart. Bitcoin barely peaked out at $4,236 (R1), however, before it was rejected to lows not seen since Dec. 20, resulting in the formation of the temporary support.

Currently, it would appear that bitcoin doesn’t have the capacity to climb higher, as volume is falling with rising prices on the smaller time frames (1-hour chart, 30-min chart). Pressure is now mounting for the bulls to make a play above $4,200 or risk conceding the short-term up-trend they had struggled hard to win.

A short-term sell-off showed bitcoin’s temporary support lay at around $3,675 with a small bullish bounce triggered from that zone. Bitcoin was rejected from around $4,200 on Dec. 24/25, signalling bullish exhaustion. A drop below $3,650 would dash short/mid-term bullish hopes heading into the new year.