Bitcoin (BTC) sought new two-year highs at the Feb. 12 Wall Street open amid fresh optimism over institutional buying.
BTC price consolidates below key resistance
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC price action passing $49,000.
The prior daily close saw the highest levels in a month as bulls initially held their own, managing $48,800 before a retracement took the market $1,000 lower in the coming hours.
With significant resistance overhead, a tug-of-war between buyers and sellers was the key talking point.
“$BTC consolidating under previous top,” popular trader and educational content creator Mac told followers on X (formerly Twitter).
“Last time I saw something like this we exploded up. I see $50,000 shortly.”
Fellow trader Jelle meanwhile suggested that BTC/USD was already in a prime position to tackle all-time highs, now around $20,000 away.
“Historically, it does not take very long for #Bitcoin to reach the other end of this range,” he noted alongside a chart.
“Is this time different?”
As Cointelegraph reported, some are cautiously approaching the $50,000 topic, among them Keith Alan, co-founder of trading resource Material Indicators.
BTC/USD, he wrote in an X post on the day, would do well to retest support again, but traders should not take the consolidation scenario as a given.
“While I think it would be healthy to see #Bitcoin retest support, confirm an R/S flip and establish a foundation for another leg up, we must be prepared for the opposite scenario as well,” he concluded.
“There is a lot of sentiment for $50k and there isn't a lot of ask liquidity above it to slow price down if price manages to break the Golden Pocket (.618 Fib). If it does, shorts are gonna get hella squeezed.”
Alan referenced the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level at $48,300, as measured from the 2021 all-time highs.
Bitcoin ETF flows fuel bullish price takes
Meanwhile, the United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) garnered increasing interest as the week began.
Related: Best weekly close since 2021 — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
Inflows saw their second-best day the week prior, with more than $400 million in a single day among the nine products on Feb. 9.
The latest data from crypto research firm Arkham put the Feb. 12 outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) at around 2,900 BTC ($140 million).
“Outflows from $GBTC remain relatively low,” popular trader Daan Crypto Trades responded, noting that ETF flows had been net positive for 11 straight days.
Today's #Bitcoin Sent to out by $GBTC/Grayscale comes out to be ~2.9K $BTC or ~$138M worth.
— Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) February 12, 2024
Outflows from $GBTC remain relatively low.
Friday's ETF net flows saw a massive +$541M increase. Second biggest day yet.
That makes 11 consecutive positive days of net inflows. https://t.co/xMqcq2TEHv pic.twitter.com/BZVTCQbXh7
As Cointelegraph reported, hope is increasing that the ETFs alone will be able to propel BTC price action higher, potentially even challenging all-time highs in the coming months.
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