02/20 update below. This post was originally published on February 19
Bitcoin and crypto prices have flat-lined over the last week as traders await an “important” announcement from Donald Trump’s U.S. administration.
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The bitcoin price is stuck under $100,000 per bitcoin after rocking past the closely-watched level in the aftermath of Trump’s election victory (even as Wall Street giant Goldman Sacks reveals it’s betting on bitcoin).
Now, as Tesla billionaire Elon Musk raises questions over the U.S. gold reserve, influential bitcoin company executive Samson Mow has warned of “price suppression” as bitcoin nears a so-called “death cross.”
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The bitcoin price rally since Donald Trump’s election victory has stalled, with one crypto executive … [+]
“If you look at the price movement, we peak, and then we stay steady and chop sideways. And it’s good, you can say it’s consolidation, but it just looks very manufactured,” Mow, the chief executive of bitcoin wallet company Jan3 and founder of Pixelmatic who worked on El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption, told attendees of the Consensus Hong Kong crypto conference, it was reported by Cointelegraph.
“It seems like it’s some sort of price suppression,” Mow added, as technical bitcoin price analysis points to it breaching a so-called “death cross”—referring to a shorter term trend line crossing below a longer term one that some fear could herald a bitcoin price crash.
02/20 update: JPMorgan analysts have warned that weakening institutional demand for bitcoin and ethereum futures is a bearish signal for crypto markets in the near term that could send the bitcoin price sharply lower.
“This is a negative development and indicative of demand weakness by those institutional investors that use regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure into these two cryptocurrencies,” the bank’s analysts wrote in a note seen by The Block, adding that futures prices could fall below spot prices, a situation last seen in the summer of 2024.
“Both bitcoin and ethereum momentum signals have been downshifting over the past couple of months with the ethereum momentum signal having shifted already into negative territory,” the analysts said.
Other bitcoin and crypto analysts are feeling equally bearish, with one warning the bitcoin price could collapse to around $70,000 per bitcoin.
“The bitcoin rally has stalled and turned sideways amid a price drift away from record highs, confirmed by momentum indicators and relative-strength readings, to the benchmark safe-haven store of value, gold,” Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research, wrote in a note that put bitcoin’s key support level at $91,500.
If that level is broken, the bitcoin price could crash to $73,400—the level it peaked at in the first half of 2024, Richey wrote.
Bitcoin’s sideways price action comes as Abu Dhabi’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund purchased $436 million worth of BlackRock’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) during the final quarter of last year, kicking off what’s been described as a global bitcoin adoption “race.”
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The bitcoin price is nearing a so-called “death cross” that some think could mean a bitcoin price … [+]
BlackRock led a campaign to get a spot bitcoin ETF approved in the U.S. through 2023, with a fleet of bitcoin funds making their debut in January 2024 before surging to become some of the fastest growing ETFs of all time.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs broke $100 billion in net assets for the first time in November, led by BlackRock’s $60 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), giving those holding it exposure to its near-600,000 bitcoin.
Meanwhile, as the fleet of U.S. bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows last week for the first time since early January, the closely watched crypto fear and greed index has now entered “fear” territory, dropping sharply from its November peak.
“This is an indirect sign that even the market’s relative stability is dampening sentiment,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro chief market analyst, said in emailed comments.
“Most worryingly, at current sentiment and capitalization levels, the markets have yet to attract sell-off hunters and counter-trend traders.”
