Bitcoin bulls battle bears for control at $23k

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(Kitco News) – The cryptocurrency market traded sideways on Tuesday as traders continued to digest the gains seen over the past several weeks while the stock market saw multiple tickers halted due to volatility shortly after the markets opened.

As the day progressed, stocks eventually resumed regular trading and found themselves under pressure following back-to-back days of gains amid a flurry of quarterly financial results from companies. At the close of markets in the U.S., the S&P and Nasdaq finished in the negative, down 0.07% and 0.27%, respectively, while the Dow managed to climb 0.31%.

Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) bulls spent the day battling bears for control of the support and resistance level at $23,000, with neither side seeing much progress as they appear evenly matched.

BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

While there was little progress from either side in trading on Tuesday, Bitcoin “bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage amid a steep price uptrend in place on the daily bar chart,” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, which “suggests that more price upside is likely in the near term.”

Where Bitcoin is headed

The hot start that Bitcoin and the altcoin market have seen thus far in 2023 is the result of “short covering” in the crypto market and a global “risk on” mood, according to Ed Hindi, Chief Investment Officer of Swiss digital asset hedge fund Tyr Capital, who added that “less uncertainty on the DCG/Genesis situation is also providing short-term support,” in a note shared with Kitco Crypto.

Hindi highlighted that the analysis coming out of Tyr Capital indicates that “the lows in BTC are behind us and that the rest of 2023 will be volatile yet bullish overall.” As for where Bitcoin is expected to head from here, Hindi gave a price prediction of $25,000 for the end of January, $30,000 by the end of June, and $45,000 by the end of 2023.

When it comes to developments that could derail the bullish rally, the CIO warned about a possible deterioration in global macro conditions, an increase in geopolitical tensions, over-aggressive regulators, and the possibility of another major crypto player like Binance or Tether getting into trouble. Hindi said that trouble with Binance or Tether was “unlikely but possible.”

As for what to expect in the immediate term, Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe posted the following tweet suggesting that Bitcoin could pull back to $22,300 before continuing higher.

#Bitcoin couldn’t break through a crucial resistance at $23.1K.

If we continue to make LHs, we’ll probably test and sweep around $22.3K before continuation.

Grants some serious buying opportunities. pic.twitter.com/P8YPYAaHvU

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) January 24, 2023

Major gains for select altcoins

The altcoin market was evenly split when it comes to gainers and losers on Thursday, but the gainers saw the largest percentage-wise changes while Axie Infinity (AXS) suffered the deepest drawdown with a decrease of 7.57%.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

The biggest gainer on the day was Threshold (T), which climbed 83.23% to high a daily high of $0.061, followed by a 79.93% increase for Keep Network (KEEP) and a 48% gain for Audius (AUDIO).

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.051 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.2%.