Bitcoin (BTC) appeared to be targeting fresh August highs at the Wall Street open on August 8, as upcoming US inflation data fueled sentiment.
$25,000 is BTC’s next resistance
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as it hit $24,246 on Bitstamp, its best level since July 30.
The pair was within striking distance of its highest since mid-June at the time of writing as traders and analysts scanned charts for signs of resistance.
For on-chain monitoring resource Material Indicators, this came in the form of sellers at $25,000 and Bitcoin’s 100-day MA.
“Bearish rally is pumping ahead of this week’s CPI report”, wrote as part of his latest Twitter update.
An attached chart showed long signals that still characterize the daily chart, with the 100-day MA sitting around $25,650.
The order book data of the largest global exchange Binance reinforced friction expectations in that area as selling liquidity was building around the $25,000 mark.
The spectacle for risk assets was the Consumer Price Index (CPI) print on August 10, with markets waiting to see if US inflation had peaked.
While this would theoretically allow cryptocurrencies some breathing space, commentators noted that the risk of a major stock market correction remained, with cryptocurrencies still highly correlated.
The moves by Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, exacerbated concerns that risk assets were simply in the midst of a protracted bear market relief rally.
Following last week’s partnership with US exchange Coinbase, Fink this month sold a tranche of more than 44,000 BlackRock shares, his first major sale since the months before the COVID-19 crash of March 2020. Concerns focused so in fact Fink now knew something that most did not.
LARRY FINK CEO OF BLACKROCK WHICH IS THE WORLDS LARGEST ASSET MANAGER WITH OVER 10 TRILLION IN ASSETS SOLD ANOTHER 8% OF HIS OWN STOCK LAST WEEK. THIS IS HIS BIGGEST STOCK SALE AFTER COVID , HIS LAST BIGGEST STOCK SALE WAS RIGHT BEFORE THE COVID CRASH. $BLK pic.twitter.com/5aNwTjLzPM
— Gurgavin (@gurgavin) August 8, 2022
LARRY FINK CEO OF BLACKROCK WHICH IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST ASSET MANAGER WITH OVER 10 BILLION ASSETS SOLD ANOTHER 8% OF HIS OWN SHARES LAST WEEK. THIS IS HIS LARGEST STOCK SALE AFTER COVID, HIS LAST LARGEST STOCK SALE WAS JUST BEFORE THE COVID CRASH.
“I think the only thing that can push prices back down is for the stock market to have another big pullback,” continuous trader and expert Max Rager on the day.
“Outside, it’s hard to see anything that puts as much selling pressure as we had with the two LUNA/3AC events.”
Rager argued that since most were expecting a trip to the June lows or worse, this would no longer be what causes the “maximum pain” for the market.
Ethereum merger could be “buy the rumour, sell the news”
Of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, it was not Bitcoin that was the best performer on a daily or even weekly basis.
The main tokens were led by Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Polkadot (DOT), which offered 24-hour returns of between 5% and 8.5%.
The ETH/USD pair, amid ongoing speculation about the merger and its fallout, hit $1,817 on Binance, marking its highest since June 9.
For on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, the good times could continue until the event itself, which is expected to be in September.
“There is little directional bias evident in the Bitcoin derivatives markets. On the Ethereum side, however, traders clearly maintain a long bias, expressed largely in September-focused options contracts,” he wrote of plans for traders in the latest edition of their newsletter, “The Week On-Chain,” published on August 8.
“Both the futures and options markets are down after September, suggesting that traders expect the Merger to be a ‘buy the rumour, sell the news’ event, and have positioned accordingly.”
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