Key Points
- Bitcoin (BTC) sees a return to the centre of the intraday trading range, with $52,000 acting as a consolidation point.
- Open interest on CME Group's Bitcoin futures markets hits a record $6.8 billion, indicating potential volatility.
As of the weekly close on February 18, Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed its position in the centre of the intraday trading range, with traders capitalising on weekend trading.
Data from TradingView highlighted $52,000 as a key point for BTC price consolidation.
A Change in Trader Behaviour
The leading cryptocurrency experienced a drop to $50,680 on Bitstamp the previous day, its lowest level in several days.
A quick recovery added nearly $1,500 in the subsequent hours, and at the time of writing, the lows had not been retested.
Skew, a well-known trader, analyzed the week's activity, noting a shift in trader behaviour in the latter half of the Wall Street trading week.
He disclosed that spot buying had decreased towards the weekend, with "mostly taker driven dips & bounces since."
"So far seeing some spot buyers return here with binance spot leading," he wrote on the day.
Concurrently, rising open interest on CME Group's Bitcoin futures markets, reaching a record $6.8 billion, suggested future volatility, according to data from monitoring resource CoinGlass.
Daan Crypto Trades, another popular trader, observed a divergence when open interest was denominated in BTC.
He stated, "This +100% rally from October has been healthy in terms of leverage imo."
"Funding has mostly kept its neutral rate and open interested denominated in BTC is lower. In USD value of course it has gone up during this time as the underlying asset (BTC) went up in value."
Skew further added that bulls needed to maintain upward momentum in Bitcoin's relative strength index (RSI) on 4-hour timeframes into the weekly close.
The 21-period exponential moving average (EMA), currently at $51,500, was also deemed significant.
"In terms of spot flows around $52K - $53K area, notable spot selling into bounces which is often the case with profit taking," he explained about the landscape on Binance.
"Key from here with current uptrend is seeing sufficient spot demand on dips, mostly seen as absorption at the lows where limit buying outweighs taker selling."
Matthew Hyland, a fellow trader and analyst, pointed out $49,000 as the crucial level to maintain for the close.
