With all eyes on the Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, Bitcoin is drifting sideways on Wall Street.
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$22,430
Wall Street remained in an active trading range at the open on February 1st as markets watched the day’s key macroeconomic data.
$23,500 is a level that beats the Bitcoin uptrend.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD and continued to move in a narrow range around $23,000.
The US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) impending rate hike and comments have caught traders across risk assets and potentially brought new volatility like last month.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell was scheduled to speak at 2:30 p.m.
Resistance on the Binance order book is getting higher each day, widening the price target amid market-moving catalysts.
On-Chain Analytics Resource Material Indicators noted that “BTC’s entire ladder of liquidity needs has been removed from the active trading range and extended to $23,500.”
He warned opportunistic traders not to “get caught” as “liquidity removal creates volatility in both directions”.
Investment research source Game of Trades also said the market’s reaction was “more important” than the confirmation of rate hikes. Markets are almost unanimously expecting a 25 basis point increase.
Maartunn, a contributor to the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, agreed with “volatility ahead” in response to Material Indicators data.
U.S. stocks initially hit the water, rising in January according to cryptocurrencies. The S&P 500 posted its best monthly gain in four years.
Trader sees a “possible retracement” of $21,600.
As for how far BTC price declines can go, Cointelegraph contributor Michael Van de Poppe sees the midpoint of $21,000.
Related: Best January since 2013? 5 things you need to know about Bitcoin this week
He said the resistance cloud below $24,000 is now “important” and failing to break through could have consequences.
“Bitcoin is rejecting a critical area where we can assume we need to break $23.3K to continue,” he told his Twitter followers.
“Otherwise, we expect a $22.3K sweep and $21.6K here to be a viable test.”
A bearish retracement potential was also present for his fellow trader Gibon. Using Wyckoff analysis, he argued that Bitcoin has seen the peak of gains for the time being.
“The constituency does not support this rally. Textbooks say price goes up, volume goes down = down,” warned part of a Twitter thread on the subject.
