BTC in for “ugly” six months
Bitcoin managed to stave off major volatility over the weekend, but still saw a new low for August as low-volume weekend trading conditions accentuated market moves.
After the sudden drawdown on Aug. 19, BTC/USD spent subsequent days eking out a low in an overall consolidation pattern, this continuing at the time of writing.
The low came in the form of a trip to $20,770 on Bitstamp, with Bitcoin then adding $1,000 before returning to trade approximately in the middle of the two values.
The weekly close at $21,500 was troublesome, marking the lowest since the week of July 18 after last week’s candle cost bulls almost $3,000 or 11.6%.
With fear of a new low palpable among commentators, others argued that conditions were not unequivocally pointing to further misery.
For Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, BTC/USD may cap any dip at the CME futures close from Aug. 19, this lying at around $21,200. More difficult for the majority of the market, he implied, would be gains, given the overall bias for downside to enter.
“Probably around CME open, we’ll be seeing markets drop to $21.2K as that’s the close of Friday, and then everything is fine,” he told Twitter followers over the weekend:
“Still not inclined we’ll be seeing new lows. The overall period of accumulation and heavy correction on Friday causes panic. Pain is on the upside.”
Zooming out, however, Brian Beamish, founder of education suite The Rational Trader, left social media with no illusions over how the rest of 2022 should shape up for Bitcoin.
“Next 12-19 wks are gonna be ugly,” part of a tweet read.
“Once done, the floor for this cycle ought to be in – then we shall start it all over again.”
Beamish drew on experience of two prior crypto bear markets, with a comparative price action chart suggesting that the real macro low was far from in for BTC/USD.
Equally confident in a recovery over a longer period, however, was analyst Matthew Hyland, who argued that traders should not lose faith.
“The Bitcoin structure over the coming weeks/months shouldn’t scare you. Either a higher low, double bottom, or cycle low will be formed,” he summarized.
“The end is near.”
