Bitcoin (BTC) starts the last week of “Uptober” in a firmly average mood as the trading range to end all trading ranges continues to stick.
After a welcome attempt to break out, BTC/USD remains bound to a narrow corridor now in place for weeks.
Some of the lowest volatility in history means that Bitcoin has found a temporary function as a “stablecoin” — even some major fiat currencies are currently more volatile.
The longer the status quo drags on, however, the more convinced commentators are that a major trend change will enter.
This week is as good as any, they argue — macroeconomic data, geopolitical instability and classic volatility around the monthly close are all factors at play when it comes to shaking up a decidedly boring Bitcoin market.
Bulls have their work cut out to make sure that such a breakout is to the upside — multi-week trading ranges offer stiff resistance, while behind the scenes, miners are suggesting that a capitulation could yet take everyone by surprise sooner rather than later.
Cointelegraph takes a closer look at the current market setup and highlights five topics to bear in mind while tracking BTC price action this week.
Highest weekly close since early September
Bitcoin offered some interesting price behavior into the Oct. 23 weekly close, BTC/USD seeing its largest “green” hourly candle in days before topping out at $19,700.
A retracement was already in progress at the close, which nonetheless managed to become Bitcoin’s highest since early September at around $19,580, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows.
Optimism accompanied the move, which by Oct. 24 had dissipated to leave Bitcoin more or less where it had been before.
For Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, the time has come to say goodbye to rangebound BTC.
“Bitcoin still stuck in this range,” he told Twitter followers the day prior.
“Coming week is a large one with all the events, which almost makes it inevitable that we’ll break out of the range. I’m watching this final resistance. It needs to break, and then, the party can start.”
Order book data told a similar story. Analyzing trader behavior on major exchange Binance, Maartunn, a contributor to on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, flagged whales draining liquidity from the established price corridor.
“Liquidity from the range has been removed, or at least significantly reduced,” he…
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