Bitcoin Remains Stagnant Despite Testing Key Resistance Barrier

BTC opened the day at $9,251.6, but a few hours later its price dropped to $9,163.4. The bulls were able to step in throughout the middle of the day and helped it recover the losses incurred. The buying pressure was significant enough to send Bitcoin just above the daily open providing a daily return of only 0.13%.

Regardless of the lackluster price action, the pioneer cryptocurrency seems to be contained within a descending parallel channel that began to take shape in the beginning of the month. Since then, each time Bitcoin hits the lower boundary of this technical formation, it rebounds to the upper boundary, and from this point, it pulls back down.

Over the past week, Bitcoin has been testing the overhead resistance signaling that it wants to break out of this consolidation pattern. A spike in the buying pressure around the current price levels may allow this to happen, which could propel its price towards $10,000.

Failing to do so, however, might see BTC get rejected by the $9,300 resistance level and plummet to the lower boundary of the descending parallel channel that sits around $8,800.

Ethereum Prepares For Strong Breakout

Like Bitcoin, the smart contracts giant is also going through a period of low volatility.

Its price opened on July 14th at $239.9 to then take a 1.09% nosedive that saw it hit the $237.3 support level. A significant number of buy orders were triggered around this price zone, which pushed Ether up by 2.11% to hit an intraday high of $242.31. As the day closed, ETH went down to $240.56.

From a technical perspective, the price action seen over the past few days forced the Bollinger bands to squeeze on ETH’s 4-hour chart. Squeezes are indicative of stagnation and are usually succeeded by strong breakouts. Since this technical indicator does not provide a clear path of where Ethereum is headed next, the area between the upper and lower band is a reasonable no-trade zone.

These critical hurdles sit at $245 and $237, respectively. Only a clear candlestick close above or below these price levels will determine the direction of Ethereum’s trend.

Market Participants Worry About the Future

Low-cap altcoins have stolen the spotlight of the cryptocurrency market after the massive gains they have posted recently. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum have failed to breakout of the consolidation period they entered since the beginning of the month.

This market behavior has investors worried about what the future may hold. Although sizable opportunities are generally presented when fear reigns, BTC and ETH have yet to provide a clear roadmap of the direction of their trends. For this reason, a small dose of patience may help investors benefit from the next significant price movement.

Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO