Bitcoin looked set to retest $17,000 on Nov. 19 as local highs gave way to choppier conditions in recent trading.
Data from price trackers including CoinMarketCap showed BTC/USD expanding its latest trading corridor between $17,500 and $18,420, dropping to lows of $17,250 over the past 24 hours.
On Thursday, momentum appeared lacking to take Bitcoin back to recently-reclaimed levels near $18,000, with a series of drops and recoveries leaving the market lower overall.
At press time, $17,500 was a focal point, but the mood among traders was swiftly turning less confident.
Analyst: “We’re getting into the top area”
“…We got a vertical move on the price of Bitcoin itself, through which we do know that lower levels have not been tested yet. Best case is around $11,600—seems quite unlikely, but we also have the previous high around $13,900-$13,500 and we’ve got the area around $12,500,” Michaël van de Poppe said in his latest video update on Thursday.
“These two levels I’m looking at for a potential downward stroke or downward momentum on Bitcoin, as I do suspect that we’re getting into the top area of Bitcoin here.”
Bitcoin has now spent two weeks above $14,000, with Tuesday marking the largest cryptocurrency’s fourth highest daily close in history. The coming days will be crucial in deciding how far price action can differentiate itself from the culmination of the bull run from 2017.
“Also, now 3 of the top 10 days are in the last 3 days,” developer Jimmy Song noted.
“We’ve officially been in this territory for longer than in January 2018 and about 5 more days away from being here longer than in December 2017.”
As Modern Consensus reported, analysts continue to highlight technical differences between now and three years ago, with the market composition and mindset of investors almost unrecognizable from Bitcoin’s previous run to all-time highs.
Technical records flow in for Bitcoin
Aside from price, an increasing number of charts continued to hit records of their own this week, including Bitcoin’s market cap, topping out at $330 billion. Various fiat currencies also reached new lows against Bitcoin.
In terms of breaking the definitive $20,000 price barrier, however, Van de Poppe added that it represented a “relatively remarkable” point at which many may choose to sell their BTC holdings.
Commenting on this year’s performance, meanwhile, PlanB, the creator of the stock-to-flow-based family of Bitcoin price models, noted that in terms of historical context, BTC/USD was performing exactly as expected.
This, he explained, was due to the impact of May’s block subsidy halving event, which was identical to Bitcoin’s two previous halving events in 2012 and 2016. Bitcoin is not taking longer to repeat its achievements, nor was it struggling to reach anticipated targets.
“I see no lengthening cycles, nor lower cycles in the data. I see stock-to-flow price patterns similar to [the] last 2 halvings,” he summarized alongside a new comparative chart.
