Bitcoin clings to $23.5K as trader says BTC 'identical' to 2020 breakout

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $23,500 on Feb. 4 as bulls refused to give up support in out-of-hours trading.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD holding a narrow range in place since the Feb. 3 Wall Street open.

Macroeconomic data releases from the United States provided modest volatility but no overall trend change as traders bided their time heading into the weekend.

Opinions on the longer-term outlook were mixed, however, with some maintaining that there was little reason to trust that Bitcoin’s rally would continue.

“Seeing $50,000 calls already on Bitcoin and we have yet to complete a higher high and higher low market structure change,” popular trader Crypto Tony summarized in part of a tweet on the day.

More optimistic was fellow trader Credible Crypto, who doubled down on a theory which compared current BTC price action to that of late 2020, just after Bitcoin had passed its old 2017 all-time high.

“Price action has developed beautifully off our lows, mimicking the bottom formation that preceded our last impulse from 10k-60k+. Current consolidation (circled in green) also looks identical to PA from that impulse,” he wrote in an update to a corresponding Twitter thread.

Others were concerned about a turnaround in the fortunes of the U.S. dollar, this potentially impacting risk assets across the board if it were to continue.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) was “ringing up alarm bells” for popular trader Bluntz, who revealed a segue into stablecoins.

“After such a long and deep sell-off, do we think the DXY is already done on the upside? I don't. Lotta shorts to squeeze yet,” macro investor David Brady continued about the dollar’s decline from twenty-year highs in Q3 2022.

Focusing on monthly timeframes,