Hey there traders, with bitcoin consolidating still, the altcoins have had a chance to make up some good gains in the past 24 hours. If we look at coingecko.com we can see most of the alts in the green, especially XRP which has bounced back after its dump – to a degree.
Add to that the fact that there is a drop in bitcoin dominance, as shown in that chart. It’s back down just above 69, and finding support at the 20 MA on the 4 hour chart. If bitcoin continues to trade sideways, we may well see the alts doing nicely. With bitcoin at $23900 now, it shows that price has been consolidating at this range for over a week.
Price has been bouncing within a roughly 8% range at the current ATH, since the massive parabolic pump the week before. The 10 and 20 MAs (moving averages) have met up with the 50 MA, which has pushed the smaller two up with the bigger.
RSI has maintained above 50 on the 4 hour chart, which implies that price is still bullish. The 50 MA is acting as strong support and price is even back above the 20 and 10 MAs, Since it is holiday time in the west now, today being Christmas, volume is decreasing. It’s also weekend, so for the next three days we may see very little price action.
Under the current conditions there is not much trading to be done or volatility. Traders need to wait for any breakout or confirmation of direction, none of which is presenting itself right now. If price breaks out of its current channel, then we can look for a possible entry long or short.
Any candle closing above $24.3k (the ATH) or below $22.4k especially on the 4 hour chart, will indicate some potential action. Otherwise we are in no-man’s land for traders and investors. We may as well take time to relax and celebrate the end of another year with our family and dear ones.
I was expecting a breakout today, but I think the lack of trading volume is negating that, being a public holiday in the west. Of course, manipulation by whales is much easier on days like this, when there is low volume. They can pump the price if they throw enough bitcoin into a buy or sell order on the exchanges, which never sleep or take holidays.
Despite the bullish trend overall, even on the daily chart, where the 10 MA is still acting as support, we can see on the daily RSI that we are making lower lows and are now out of the overbought region.
The last time we pumped and then consolidated or traded sideways, at the start of December, price stayed range-bound with an 11.3% range for 15 days, and if this pattern repeats, then we could see our current consolidation channel continue until New Year, more or less. Considering that this week is one of the major holiday times of the year, with much less trading, it would be normal for price to simply hover along in the current channel.
You can still make day trades within this channel if you like, but the risk is higher, in my opinion. As the bitcoin dominance continues to decline now, traders may well be moving out of bitcoin and into alts, aiming to catch the alt pump going on during this bitcoin consolidation. Most of the alts are doing well over the past 24 hours, so that is where you will find some good trades. These include XRP, which has bounced significantly after the FUD and historic dump after their SEC law suit news.
All of the top 20 alts (excluding stable coins) have had good gains against BTC overnight. This could be the chance for the alts now, in this momentary consolidation on bitcoin price. That said, bitcoin is about to hit the upper point in its channel. Is this a new attempt at another ATH or the point of reversal to the lower level of the channel? Let’s watch and observe.