- The BTC price has dropped under 50-day EMA hinting at short-term bearishness. It’s still above the 200-day EMA with long-term bulls intact.
- SEC Chair Gary Gensler shared his skepticism over crypto market manipulation thereby dampening prospects of recovery.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has been currently under selling pressure and has been trading under $30,000 levels for quite some while. As of press time, BTC is trading 0.83% down at a price of $29,249 with a market cap of $586 billion.
On the daily technical chart, Bitcoin (BTC) continues to show weakness. The BTC/USD Daily Chart indicates that Bitcoin is currently below the resistance level of $30,750 – $31,250. It has also fallen below the 50-day EMA ($29,448) but remains above the 200-day EMA ($26,953), suggesting a bearish short-term outlook but a bullish long-term outlook. The narrowing of the 50-day EMA on the 200-day EMA supports the possibility of further losses.
The 14-Daily RSI reading of 43.45 indicates a bearish trend. If BTC continues to fall, it could reach below $28,500, bringing the support band of $27,500 – $26,850 into consideration. However, if BTC manages to move above the 50-day EMA ($29,448), it could give the bulls an opportunity to push for $30,000 and attempt to break the resistance band of $30,750 – $31,250.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler Raises Doubts on Bitcoin ETFs
Thursday’s trading session was bustling with activity as investors ignored the positive US GDP and jobless claims numbers, which alleviated concerns about a potential economic downturn. The market sentiment largely remained negative with the SEC Chair expressing skepticism about the state of the crypto market.
During his televised interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, July 27, Gensler raised concerns about general fraud and manipulation taking place in the crypto space. “This field of crypto investing, a lot of investors should be aware it’s not only a highly speculative asset class. It’s also one that they currently should not assume that they’re getting the protections of the securities laws even though the securities laws apply to many of those tokens without prejudging,” said Gensler.
The comments suggest that there are still regulatory obstacles for bitcoin ETFs due to concerns about transparency and market manipulation. Even though investors are excited about bitcoin ETFs, recent actions by the SEC against Coinbase and Binance show that these concerns are still relevant.
Bitcoin Options Traders Put An Eye on Expiry
The upcoming $2 billion Bitcoin monthly options expiry on July 28 has the potential to establish $29,500 as a support level. Some argue that the recent interest rate increase by the United States Federal Reserve to 5.25% has had a negative impact on risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies. However, supporters of Bitcoin remain optimistic, believing that the full effects of the tighter economic policy will take time to influence the markets.
In hindsight, the monthly expiry on June 30 did not lead to significant volatility, as Bitcoin had already seen a 22.2% gain between June 15 and June 23. Conversely, the May monthly expiry triggered a 9% rally, with Bitcoin’s price rising from $26,100 on May 25 to $28,450 on May 29.
On the other hand, the options expiry in April resulted in a 7% correction, as Bitcoin’s price dropped from $29,900 on April 27 to $27,800 on May 1. This data clearly indicates that the impact of options expiry takes a few days to consolidate but eventually becomes highly relevant for setting trends.
